Explore West African Rhythms

Instrumental Activity

Play a Percussion Part

• Listen to "Daa Dwene" again and follow the chart to hear the entrances of the percussion parts.

• Repeat the song and learn to play Parts 1, 2, and 3 one at a time. Use a small percussion instrument, bang on a sturdy nearby object that has a percussive sound, or clap your hands.
• Once you are comfortable with any one of the parts, play it along with any of the three arrangements of the song.

Arrangement 1: pitched percussion instrumentation

Arrangement 2: modern electronic instrumentation

Arrangement 3: bass and guitar instrumentation

• Try improvising variations.
• As a further challenge, learn Percussion Part 6 of "Daa Dwene." It enters at 0:22.
• Then play Part 6 along with your chosen arrangement and improvise variations that turn it into a featured part or "lead."
• On your worksheet, complete the Performance Activity section.

Notate Percussion Parts

• Listen again to "Daa Dwene."
• Notate as many of the different percussion parts as you can.
• With a MIDI sequencer or multi-track recording device, reconstruct the rhythms with your own percussion sounds. Incorporate variations.
• Compose additional percussion parts and notate them.

Improvise Melodies

• With a pitched instrument, improvise melodies along with any or all of the arrangements in this activity. All arrangements make use of the C minor pentatonic scale:

Tune Your Guitar

• You can also use the C Dorian scale:

Tune Your Guitar

• Experiment with other note choices. Include in your improvisation some of the rhythmic patterns that can be heard in the percussion parts.

You can now choose another Performance Activity.