African Drums Are Here to Stay
With the popularity of various types of African drums, it is interesting to look at their history. For starters, some of the most popular drums we use in performances today originated in the Guinea, Mali, or Ivory Coast areas of the African continent. All of these drums were of course hand carved and therefore not exactly perfect and symmetrical. The sound of an African drum is expected to have a deeper tone in the lower ranges, and then to produce some sort of higher ranged after effect as the sound decays. The technique of hand slaps produces this
As you would expect, African drums like the djembe or ngoma have been around for centuries and are an integral part of the culture of African tribes. Their ceremonies would not even exist as we know them without the use of the various drums. The African drums are so much a part of the event, that there is an emotional and even religious connotation to the drums use.