When it comes to music, there are several genres. This could not be more true when it comes to Ghana music. Ghanian melodies can be very diverse depending on what part of the country an individual may be in at the time.
North and South Ghana have very different musical taste. Northern traditions come from Sahelian traditions. Sahelian features a combination of melody and stringed instruments. Some common instruments in the North and South are the kologo lute and the gonjey fiddle, wind instruments, voice, drums and percussion.
Notes flow almost effortlessly thanks to the chromatic and pentatonic scales used in Northern and Southern Ghana. Chanting, praise-singing and story telling are all essential to the people and identity of these areas. Whereas, other areas are more prone to rhythmic beats surrounding by the softness of strings and at times, voice.
Northern styles are set to a minor pentatonic or chromatic scale and melisma plays an important part in melodic and vocal styles. There is a long history of northern styles also being inclusive of the griot and praise-singing traditions.
Social functions like funerals, graduations, weddings and the like are often met with coastal style music. This style requires complex patterns be played on a variety of percussion instruments. These instruments often include bells, cowbells, drums, gourds, sticks and other percussion based instruments.
The Coast sound and material can also be associated with many different religions. Most religions tend to use the percussion based styles over the harps and strings with few exception. A harp-lute whose origins are in the well known stringed harps. The most common drums with relation to religious ceremonies are the kete and adowa which host a set of bells as part of the base drum.
It was only in 1957 that Ghana won her independence. As a result, while always popular, music in the region has gone through several changes. For the most part, the two most popular forms of music are dance pop and Highlife. A newer version of HipLife has also now become quite popular as is the case with hip-hop in other areas of the world.
High-life combines elements of soukous, ska, rock, jazz and swing. Ghanian traditions found a pathway into the United States in the late 60s and early 70s. While successful, it was not the level of success some had expected. The music also became popular albeit only briefly in the U. K. One of the main success stories of Ghanian music is that Osibisa's Afro-rock which became quite well known in the 1970s.
Guitar bands and High-life pretty much kept the clubs hopping in the 1920, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s in Ghana. Then in the 1970s, electric guitar and pop-dance took over the scene. Later, German Highlife took hold and led to the pop music which remains quite popular. Burger-Highlife was a form founded by the Ghanian-Germans which is very similar to Highlife with George Darko being one of the primary musicians of the genre. Later, HipLife, a hip-hop version of Highlife found its way onto the Ghanian music scene.
North and South Ghana have very different musical taste. Northern traditions come from Sahelian traditions. Sahelian features a combination of melody and stringed instruments. Some common instruments in the North and South are the kologo lute and the gonjey fiddle, wind instruments, voice, drums and percussion.
Notes flow almost effortlessly thanks to the chromatic and pentatonic scales used in Northern and Southern Ghana. Chanting, praise-singing and story telling are all essential to the people and identity of these areas. Whereas, other areas are more prone to rhythmic beats surrounding by the softness of strings and at times, voice.
Northern styles are set to a minor pentatonic or chromatic scale and melisma plays an important part in melodic and vocal styles. There is a long history of northern styles also being inclusive of the griot and praise-singing traditions.
Social functions like funerals, graduations, weddings and the like are often met with coastal style music. This style requires complex patterns be played on a variety of percussion instruments. These instruments often include bells, cowbells, drums, gourds, sticks and other percussion based instruments.
The Coast sound and material can also be associated with many different religions. Most religions tend to use the percussion based styles over the harps and strings with few exception. A harp-lute whose origins are in the well known stringed harps. The most common drums with relation to religious ceremonies are the kete and adowa which host a set of bells as part of the base drum.
It was only in 1957 that Ghana won her independence. As a result, while always popular, music in the region has gone through several changes. For the most part, the two most popular forms of music are dance pop and Highlife. A newer version of HipLife has also now become quite popular as is the case with hip-hop in other areas of the world.
High-life combines elements of soukous, ska, rock, jazz and swing. Ghanian traditions found a pathway into the United States in the late 60s and early 70s. While successful, it was not the level of success some had expected. The music also became popular albeit only briefly in the U. K. One of the main success stories of Ghanian music is that Osibisa's Afro-rock which became quite well known in the 1970s.
Guitar bands and High-life pretty much kept the clubs hopping in the 1920, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s in Ghana. Then in the 1970s, electric guitar and pop-dance took over the scene. Later, German Highlife took hold and led to the pop music which remains quite popular. Burger-Highlife was a form founded by the Ghanian-Germans which is very similar to Highlife with George Darko being one of the primary musicians of the genre. Later, HipLife, a hip-hop version of Highlife found its way onto the Ghanian music scene.
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