What is the main element in African Music?

African music most closely adheres to Western tetratonic (four-note), pentatonic (five-note), hexatonic (six-note), and heptatonic (seven-note) scales. Harmonization of the melody is accomplished by singing in parallel thirds, fourths, or fifths (see Traditional sub-Saharan African harmony).

1. What is the most important element of African music?
2. What are the main features of African music?
3. What is the most important element in West African music?
4. What are the main elements of South African music?
5. What is the tempo of African music?
6. How does African music differ from Western music?
7. What are the 4 main categories of African musical instruments?
8. What are African instruments made of?
9. What is the harmony of African music?
10. What musical element is said to be the most distinguishing characteristic of African music tradition?
11. What is the most popular instrument in Africa?
12. What is the purpose of South African music?
13. What was Mitchells Plain known as according to Falko?

What is the most important element of African music?

The pitch level of the sound determines significance in many African languages, while the melodies and rhythms of the music usually form the song texts. Rhythm and percussive sounds are highly emphasised in African music. Several different patterns are played at the same time and repeated over and over.

What are the main features of African music?

Songs include accompanied and unaccompanied solos, duets and choruses. Unaccompanied choruses are an example of a cappella singing. Songs are usually either strophic (split up into verses) or are in call-and-response form.

What is the most important element in West African music?

The music of West Africa is characterized by two main aspects: rhythm and melody. The rhythm is generally the most important, and West African songs are polyrhythmic featuring two or more conflicting rhythms.

What are the main elements of South African music?

South African music is a complex blend of African and Western cultures that reflects a history of conflict and perseverance. It includes music from indigenous cultures like the Khoisan, the KwaXhosa, and the Zulu. The latter performed choral music a cappella.

What is the tempo of African music?

This series of 24 notes, when played by expert musicians, is at a speed of approximately 600 notes per minute. But each musician, for himself, plays one-third that fast.

How does African music differ from Western music?

- Western Music is, broadly speaking, expressed with emphasis on the downbeat, whereas African music seems to emphasise the rhythm on the upbeat. Sometimes, to the untrained ear, African music appears deceptively easy to reproduce, but once you try it, there seem to be layers beneath layers of rhythm.

What are the 4 main categories of African musical instruments?

African musical instruments are classified into four groups namely; idiophones, chordophones, aerophones and membranophones.

What are African instruments made of?

Materials for the instruments are usually from nature, like wood, gourds, turtle shells, animal horns or skin. Other materials might be recycled from man-made objects, like scrap metal from old cars or oil drums. Blacksmiths or artists trained in instrument making create them for important people and groups.

What is the harmony of African music?

Traditional sub-Saharan African harmony is a music theory of harmony in Sub-Saharan Africa music based on the principles of homophonic parallelism (chords based around a leading melody that follow its rhythm and contour), homophonic polyphony (independent parts moving together), counter melody (secondary melody) and ...

What musical element is said to be the most distinguishing characteristic of African music tradition?

Rhythm is the most distinguishing characteristic of African music tradition.

What is the most popular instrument in Africa?

Most widely spread and played instruments in Africa are the drum, the xylophone, the mbira, rattles and shakers. The one-string musical bow, played all over the continent but now nearly abandoned, was once responsible for all the vocal scales that are used today in African music.

What is the purpose of South African music?

The songs of South Africa are renowned for the profound social and political role they played in the struggle against Apartheid rule.

What was Mitchells Plain known as according to Falko?

At the same time, the hip-hop movement was just starting to get its footing—that year, gangsta rap would all but be invented on America's West Coast by N.W.A., when they put out the groundbreaking album Straight Outta Compton (Mitchells Plain was the so-called “Mecca” of hip hop in the country, according to Falko).