Drumming is the most obvious form of African music to use as a starting point but one thing you could do first is make your own African drum using carpet tubing and a strong material for the skin. By making the body of the drum different lengths, a different sound or pitch will be produced.
Activity 1
Give every child a percussion instrument and group them into types eg large drums, tambours etc. Introduce a different rhythm for each group and get children to take it in turns to conduct and bring in groups on the signal. There are many variations to this activity eg loud / soft, faster / slower, numbers of groups playing at any one time. The activity can be made as simple or as complex as the ability of the children will allow. This activity would need to be built up over a number of sessions.
Activity 2
African music and dance are really quite inseparable and therefore the two lessons can be very well combined. Listening to African music is as much part of musical knowledge as anything else. Play the children music from a group such as Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Encourage them to listen to the rhythms and emotion of the music first of all together, then perhaps in pairs and as their confidence grows to create their own group interpretation of a complete piece of music. This series of lessons could be repeated with different moods of music and following watching tribal singing and dancing patterns.
Activity 3
Research the instruments used across Africa. There are many good websites that will give you clear information and images of the different types. See whether you can group the instruments into categories – drum/percussion, stringed and wind instruments. Try making your own rattles, gongs and thumb pianos from everyday objects.
Activity 4
Gospel music is very popular in many parts of Africa. This is due to the missionaries who took Christianity to Africa when they travelled and it influenced the indigenous peoples to quite an extent. Listen to gospel music and pay particular attention to the harmonies used. Using xylophones and glockenspiels, experiment with creating 3 note harmonies with simple tunes. Develop this into harmony singing of your own. It doesn’t have to be gospel – you can listen to popular music which uses harmonies as well.