How the Talking Drum "Talks"

How the Talking Drum "Talks"

• African cultures South of the Sahara are mostly rooted in oral tradition. For instance, instead of using a written tradition, many African groups record their group's history using storytell and music. Sometimes talking drummers are hired to recite the history of a village or a particular king and his clan.
   
• Like Chinese or Vietnamese, the Yoruba language is a tonal language. The same word aro, in the Yourban language, can mean cymbal, indigo dye, lamentation, and granary, depending on the intonation the speaker uses when speaking the word.
   
• The Yoruba recognize 3 different pitches: low, medium and high. Talking drummers can use these 3 pitches to mimick the tonal inflections of the spoken language, thus attempting to duplicate the language on the drum. Listeners who are native speakers of Yoruba can usually discern the drummers meaning, especially if they are familiar with the context or social occasion in which the drumming occurs.
  
  Video Clip: In this clip, Henry demonstrates how the 3 tones--the low, middle and high--are used to represent the way a name may be spoken in the Yoruba language.
  

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