Sigma Alpha Iota

Winter 2020 14 PAN PIPES MUSIC OF GHANA F resh food, lively music, and friendly company: these are a few things you can expect at the Dagara Music Center (DMC) in Medie, Ghana. is is where I travelled from May 7-May 21, 2019, to study traditional Ghanaian music and culture with twelve other travelers: one student from e University of El Paso percussion studio, one English professor from the University of Tennessee at Martin, and two percussion professors and eight students from the University of Tennessee at Martin percussion studio. e DMC is a research center and school that was founded by master gyil player Bernard Woma (1966-2018) in 1999 with the mission of teaching students and musicians from all over the globe to appreciate and better understand the music of Ghanaian culture. 1 e DMC is visited throughout the year by university groups like ours, as well as independent groups and individuals who are interested in researching traditional Ghanaian music, dance, art, and culture. e DMC property is surrounded by a tall wall and is comprised of a courtyard, two buildings for housing, and a pavilion at the back. e instructors at the DMC speak English, which is the national language of Ghana. Most of the instructors also speak other languages like Twi, which is an African language spoken frequently throughout southern Ghana. 2 e weather in Ghana while we were at the DMC was very hot and humid. Ghana does not necessarily have four seasons like the United States but instead has two seasons: a wet season and a dry season. Both seasons are hot, but the difference is that the humidity is much higher during the wet season. The Music and Instruments While at the DMC, my university group and I studied the gyil, kpanlogo drums, and djembe. e gyil is a pitched keyboard percussion instrument that typically has fourteen keys arranged in a pentatonic scale. ere is oen an un-pitched fieenth key that the player hits with the wooden end of the mallet to make a clicking sound that plays the rhythmic timeline. Gyil keys are typically made from rosewood, but some newer gyils have keys made from other woods due to illegal deforestation and the potential extinction of rosewood. ese keys are attached to a wooden frame by a thin rope. From each key hangs a calabash gourd that acts as a resonator, much like the aluminum Studying Traditional Ghanaian Music Epsilon Iota initiate Michaela Johnson playing the gyil. Winter 2020 14 PAN PIPES

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