Yoruba Music - Musical Instruments

Musical Instruments

• Agbe: a shaker
• Ashiko: a cone-shaped drum
• Batá drum: a well decorated traditional drum of many tones, with strong links to the deity Shango, it produces sharp high tone sounds.
• Goje: sort of violin like the sahelian kora
• Sekere: a melodic shaker; beads or cowrie shells beautifully wound around a gourd, shaken, beaten by fists occasionally and thrown in the air to create a festive mood.
• gudugudu: a smaller, melodic bata
• Sakara drum: goatskin istretched over clay ring
• Agogô: a high-pitched tone instrument like a "covered" 3-dimensional "tuning fork"
• Saworo: like agogo, but its tone is low-pitched
• aro: much like a saworo, low-pitched
• Seli: a combination of aro, saworo and hand-clapping
• Agidigbo, a thumb piano instrument wound round the neck and stabilized by the player's chest.
• Dundun, consisting of iya ilu or gbedu, main or "mother" drum and omele, smaller drums, played as an accompaniment to bata drums to create a base for their sharp beats.
• Bembé, bass drum, kettle drum. (see also List of Caribbean membranophones)