Native American Musical Instruments

Music forms an integral part of the lives of the native Americans. The wealth of native American music is adorned by a wide variety of musical instruments like the drums, flutes and the rattles. These instruments often accompany native American songs that play a vital role in the oral transmission of history and customs and also in the education of these tribes. However, the types and purpose of music are different for each tribe. This is reflected in native American musical instruments that vary in the construction and the material used to make them among the different tribes.

Native American Music

Singing and the drums are the most important part of the native American music. Music is often accompanied with dance for most of the celebrations. The music traditionally starts on a slow note and then catches up to a faster beat. The music also becomes louder and more emphatic. The musical instruments, shouts from the players, and whistles signal the changes in performance of the singers and dancers.

Native American Musical Instruments

The most important musical instrument names that come to the mind when one speaks of native American music are:

The Drums
The drums occupy an important place in the music of the native Americans. Though their use varied according to the tribe and the region, native American drum music formed the centerpiece for both sacred and secular music. Traditionally these drums are large and unlike the native American flutes, are a communal musical instrument played by a group of individuals. The basic construction of the powwow drums that are used for larger dances include a wooden frame or a hollow log of wood with an animal skin stretched over the opening and secured using sinew thongs. These are the two-sided drums. The smaller single sided drums are made out of thinner frames or shells with animal hide stretched across a single side. The native American drums also include the water drums that are played by beating over a moist, tanned hide stretched across a small wooden vessel containing water. The other common type of water drum that is popular among the Yaqui, a native American tribe, consists of a large, dried, hard shell of a gourd floating in water. Striking the gourd shell sends out vibrations into the surrounding water that amplifies the vibrations and produces the beats. Other than these two basic types, there are the square drums are played by the native Americans of the Pacific Coast. These are made from wooden boxes or frames.

Native American Flutes
Native American flutes are the only flutes in the world that have just two chambers with a wall dividing the top chamber and the bottom chamber. A traditional flute is made according to the body measurements of the flautist. The length of the flute is equal to the distance between the armpit and the wrist, and the length of the top air chamber is equal to the width of the player's fist. The distance between the whistle and the first hole and that between the last hole and the end of the flute is equal to the width of a single fist of the flautist. The other holes are are one thumb width apart. The material used for making these flutes range from hardwoods of the walnut and cherry to the more popular softer woods of cedar, redwood and juniper. The softwoods were more preferred as these provided a softer tone to the melody of the flute. Clay, bamboo and bones of birds were also used to make these flutes. However, the construction of these flutes, for example the length and the number of holes, varied according the tribes that they belonged to. The native American flutes have a distinct plaintive sound due to the fact that they are played on a variation of the minor pentatonic scale. However, with newer innovations these can be played on other scales as well. Traditionally, native American flute music has a personal connotation as it was used in courtship, healing and meditation without any other musical instrument accompanying it.

Native American Rattles
The rattles used by the native Americans are made from gourd, raw hide, turtle shell and horn. Gourd rattles that are typical to the south western parts of the United States are made by drying the vegetable, scooping out the pulp and filling it with dried seeds. The opening is then blocked by inserting a handle into it. Turtle rattles are made by filling a turtle shell with pebbles. Even the raw hide rattles have pebbles inside animal skins stitched and dried to shape. For horn rattles, buffalo horns are most largely used by the people in the plains. These are scraped, dried and filled with pebbles. Some tribes also use dear hoof rattles. These are made by attaching a number of deer hooves to a stick or other materials which rattle when the stick is shaken.

Other native American musical instruments include the rasps, whistles, clappers and fiddles. Stringed musical instruments were not very common among the native Americans.