CMA 556T Survey/Lab of West African Music
This class explores selected practices of three Ghanaian music traditions—the Ewe people of Southern Ghana and the Dagomba people of northern Ghana. We will also have a guest artist who will present a lecture on Ashanti drumming (Kete music from Central Ghana). Students will study/transcribe drum rhythms and vocables, ensemble instrumentation, and songs with an emphasis on ear training, off-beat timing, binary/ternary rhythms and cross-rhythms. We will apply Leake’s Harmonic Time method for internalizing musical time, groove and mathematics for adapting bell patterns, drum languages, and songs. Excerpts from Leake’s books and audio/video recordings provide deeper cultural context. Includes hands-on playing of traditional drums, and contemporary applications to your primary instruments for a final group project.