Talking Drums

Level 6

Lower drum + higher drum = Twi's low and high tones: the atumpan speak by playing a phrase's melody and rhythm.

How It Works

1. The drums and the drummer
The atumpan are a pair of drums played with two curved sticks. The lower-pitched drum is called male and the higher one female. A drummer is an ɔkyerɛma (plural akyerɛma), and the chief royal drummer is honoured as Ɔdomankoma Kyerɛma, the Creator's Drummer.

2. How a drum can talk
A drum cannot make vowels or consonants. It can make high and low pitches, loud and soft strokes, and rhythm. In Twi, those are enough to bring a well-known phrase to mind, because tone is part of every word.

3. Why drum texts are long and fixed
Many words share the same tone pattern, so one short word on the drum could mean many things. Drummers therefore play set phrases, praise names and proverbs that listeners already know, and a longer phrase leaves less doubt.

4. What the drums say
Drums greet and praise chiefs with Appellations and Praise Names and titles from Royal Titles: Otumfoɔ, Nana, recite Proverbs: ɛbɛ, call people together and announce events such as a death.

5. What it teaches a learner
Spelling hides tone, but meaning does not. Yɛnkɔ is Let us go with one melody and We do not go with another, as Tone in Grammar shows. The drums remind us that Twi speakers hear those melodies as part of the words, so listen for tone and copy it.

Examples (6)

  1. Ɔkyerɛma no rebɔ atumpan.

    The drummer is playing the talking drums.

    Bɔ (strike) is the verb for playing a drum, as in bɔ twene.

  2. Atumpan no rekasa.

    The talking drums are speaking.

  3. Atumpan no bɔɔ Nana din.

    The talking drums called out Nana's name.

    Bɔ din means mention or call out a name.

  4. Wɔfrɛ ɔkyerɛma panin no Ɔdomankoma Kyerɛma.

    The chief drummer is called the Creator's Drummer.

  5. Yɛnkɔ.

    Let us go. (With another melody: We do not go.)

    One spelling, two melodies. A drum, like a speaker, plays them differently; see Let and May: The Optative.

  6. Sɛ atumpan kasa a, wɔn a wɔnim kasa no te ase.

    When the talking drums speak, those who know the language understand.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

Talking DrumsLevel 6

Learn This First

Talking drums rely on tone.