Lessons at the University

The most fun thing I've been doing the last 2 weeks has definitely been my music and dance classes that I've been taking at the University of Ghana: Legon. Since I'm kind of in an in between phase right now, we decided it would be a good idea for me to get some ethnomusicology experience by taking some private lessons at the Performing Arts School! I've enjoyed every minute of it!

I signed up for xylophone, drumming, and dancing lessons for each day for the past 2 weeks. I didn't really know what to expect, but I've gotten so much out of it. Everyday, I headed out to the University around 8:30. I bargained for my taxi and directed them to the place and mostly didn't get ripped off! And I've gotten really good at explaining to my taxi drivers why I won't give them my phone number or buy them a ticket to America! haha. When I got to the University, I didn't have specific locations to find my teachers at or specific times where I knew I could find them! So I would look around and ask for help until I found my first teacher, and then look around for my 2nd, etc. It was actually not that annoying to track down my teachers everyday, and I met a lot of people in between!

Xylophone
My xylophone teacher was a young guy (I think a graduate student). Each day we carried the heavy xylophones outside under a big tree in the back for my lessons. The xylophone here has wooden keys with gourds of corresponding sizes situated under them to amplify the sound. Each gourd has some holes in it covered with spider web which helps create the buzzing speaker effect. It is a really interesting instrument. And it is pentatonic. At my lessons, I got to learn several traditional songs which I played with my teacher. One person does the lead part while the other person does the accompanying parts. The music is really beautiful! Here is a picture of us playing together:

Drumming
My drum teacher taught me the drum patterns to 3 traditional Ghanaian dances. These were definitely the most difficult lessons I took because I both don't have a lot of drumming experience, and I often found my Western rhythmical training blocking me from easily picking up the African rhythms. I worked really hard though and came out triumphant! It's been a nice challenge to have to throw out so much of my musical education in order to learn this music. A good reminder that musical knowledge is incredibly broad. Much of the drumming I learned was done with both sticks and with hand drumming so I (mostly) learned how to effectively hold two sticks in one hand while hand drumming with the other hand! Tricky. Here's a picture of me playing the drum:

Dancing
I learned the corresponding dances to the drum patterns I learned which was very useful since it both gave me a better understanding of the dancing and the dancing gave me a better understanding of the drumming! I was most excited about dancing because I've always loved African dance. It was no disappointment. My teacher was really fun and she taught me well. She also taught me the songs that are sung during parts of the dances. So we spent a lot of time dancing and singing together! On the side, she even taught me some traditional songs on the flute here too! Here are some pictures of me dancing in the corresponding costumes for each of the dances I learned!

Bima

Gota

Gahu