AFRICAN RHYTHM

In highlife music, makossa, afrobeats, soukus, fuji, juju and other African genres of music, you will come across this rhythmic pattern:

To discuss ostinato in African music without making reference to the rhythmic pattern would be same as talking Scottish musical instruments and neglecting to mention bagpipes.

The above ostinato would be the most recognisable and also one of the simplest rhythmic patterns in African music. It can be notated in all time signatures common in African music (4/4, 6/8, 12/8).

As simple as this rhythmic pattern sounds, it is also the bedrock and foundation upon which every other African rhythmic pattern and melody, however complicated it may sound, is built upon. In highlife music of West Africa, the clave, woodblocks and metal gongs play this rhythmic pattern. The sekere (shakers) sometimes play the same pattern with a little variation or plays a pattern that directly complements this, as in the case of Afrobeat¹ music.

This rhythmic pattern is not only limited to non-melodic instruments and percussions, melodic instruments like the xylophone, the two or three tone slit wooden drum can also play this rhythmic pattern and in most cases in highlife guitar playing, the rhythm guitarist follows this pattern smoothly.

Below I am using the 1, 4 and 5 chord progression popular in highlife music to play a typical highlife groove, and you can see hear, it still follows this rhythmic pattern.

Also, below I am doing a very simple but popular highlife music fingerpicking style that still follows this same rhythmic pattern. In some cases, vocal parts emulate this pattern by merging very few notes from the pentatonic scale which is also significant in African music.

Lead and bass guitarists in Afrobeat¹ sometimes play this rhythmic pattern by using chord tones, thus spelling out the chord progression of the music. An example of this would be in a 1, 4 and 5 movement where the lead guitarist would play the tonic note using this pattern for as long as the chord-one plays, and then moves to play the subdominant note for as long as the chord-four plays, and finally plays the dominant still using this rhythmic pattern for as long as the chord-five plays.

The usage, function and history of this rhythmic pattern cannot be covered within this context but if you would take a rather not too casual listen to some African music genres, you will come to agree with me that this rhythmic pattern is the bedrock and mother of African rhythm.

Next time you come across an African tune or an ensemble of African musicians playing together, listen out for this rhythmic pattern and maybe tap your foot along.

Funfact

¹ Afrobeat (without the "s") is the genre popularized created by Nigerian music legend, Fela Kuti, with a mainly funk groove with jazzy horn sections and solos. I should do a post on that. Afrobeats (with the “s”), on the other hand, is the general categorization for contemporary African music. Oritse Femi, Sarkodie, Sauti Sol, Uhuru etc. They are not interchangeably used, neither is one the plural or singular of the other.