One of the best-known African drums is the West African djembe. It is shaped like a large goblet and played with bare hands. The body is carved from a hollowed trunk and is covered in goat skin.

Although a melody is not always heard in traditional African music, some ensembles do include some melodic devices and instruments. For example: Although the two rhythms divide the bar of music ...

Listen for the talking drum, one of several instruments collected by Howard University professor Lorenzo Dow Turner. His groundbreaking research told stories of sounds and songs transported from ...

And it was Joseph Howard, an ally whom Ortiz never met, who collected some 700 percussion instruments from Asia, the Pacific, Africa, Europe and the Americas. The exhibition, which has text and ...

Jessie Lehmann, a member of The Know Bodies Band, discovered her passion for traditional West African drumming before she even visited Africa. Through a drum club at her college, Lehmann, who had no ...