Odondo – The communicator

If anybody wondered about Odondo- The Talking Drum, it is a West African percussion instrument. Used by local tribes in Ghana, it also serves as a communicating device for passing messages to far off places. I guess everyone of us has imagined the talking drum when we read the phantom stories. It is not just imaginary. This hour glass shaped drum dates back centuries and is still popular among the tribes and modern African drummers. This instrument is well known for the pitch variation it can produce that it almost mimics the talk.

The drummer places the drum under one shoulder and beats it with a stick varying the pitch with the pressure from his upper arm. Also called Dondo, Doodo, Donno and so on among different tribes, people used it to pass their messages drumming the name of the recipient, then the sender followed by the message. Isn’t that amazing?

From my childhood I was fascinated towards yet another hour glass shaped instrument Idakka found in Kerala, South India (where I hail from). This instrument shares a lot of similarities with the odondo, for instance the shape, the pitch variation and the style of playing.