Music is an essential part of African culture. It is a way to share history, traditions, and folklore. Music has been used to start war, celebrate birth, mourn death and communicate that danger is coming. It is so important that an insult to a person’s song is an insult to the person themselves. Music in Africa has changed over the

decades; the value of music has not changed.

We know that in America we have 4 families of instruments: WOODWINDS, BRASS, STRINGS, and PERCUSSION. In Africa, families are categorized a little bit differently. Instead of having two wind groups (WOODWINDS & BRASS), they have one family, the AEROPHONES (air). CHORDOPHONES are Africa's version of the STRINGS family (chord). Because percussive instruments are so important in Africa, the PERCUSSION family is divided into two groups, IDIOPHONES (the main part of the instrument vibrates) and MEMBRANOPHONES (it has skin). I wonder what kind of instruments are in the ELECTROPHONES?

Check out the instruments below and see if you can figure out which family the instrument belongs to.

African Instruments

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In Africa, musicians are resourceful and use everyday items

to create instruments. Click on the picture below and check

out the really cool instruments the performers at Bash the

Trash have created!