What
Are Musical Shakers And How Are
They Played?
What
Are Musical
Shakers
Until I
started studying African music, I
didn't realize how significant
musical shakers can be. In our
culture, most people think of
shaker eggs or those little
maracas when they picture musical
shakers.
The shakers
we use are pretty rudimentary,
and they are used for simple
effects. People just simply use
them to keep time and at a little
bit of extra rhythm.
They do
have a pleasant sound to them,
and they're easy to play for
people who aren't experienced
with percussion. Nevertheless, it
is not a particularly significant
instrument.
So I was
interested to discover the rich
variety of musical shakers used
in cultures that place a higher
emphasis on hand percussion. My
favorite one of all is called the
shekere. It is basically a gourd
covered with beaded netting.
Sometimes
the netting is tightly wound
against the gourd and instruments
played by rubbing. More often,
however – particularly with
larger gourds – the netting
is a loose web that surrounds the
gourd.
How Are
Musical Shakers
Played?
The way it
is played is fascinating. You
throw it up and down back and
forth between your hands,
creating a rhythm when you catch
it and bat at it.
Shekeres
Not only do
shekeres make some of the best
tones of any of the musical
shakers I know, but they also can
be used to make pretty complex
and interesting rhythms. The true
percussion masters can really put
on a stage show by throwing the
shekere up in the air and
catching it in a rhythmic manner.
I have seen
some pretty complex things done
with the instrument, things that
you can not do with most musical
shakers.
Nonetheless,
even though shaker eggs have
their charm. Most people simply
shake them back and forth to get
a little bit of a beat, and this
is fine for using in the
background of songs, but you can
do so much more with them.
You can
slide them back and forth in a
slow, sinuous rhythm that is
surprising in its complexity. It
is hard to mic them, and they are
almost never used in this manner,
but I've seen it done to good
effect.
Maracas
- The Music Shaker
Standard
Of course,
the most classical musical
shakers of all are the humble
maracas. You see maracas in many
different forms, sometimes used
in traditional shamanic
ceremonies and other times played
by backup singers for some of the
leading bands in the world.
For such a
universally overlooked
instrument, the maraca really
does have quite a surprising
resume. Now, let's take a trip to
Africa, or at least the musical
instrument store!
|
