Ghanaian music, like African music, dates back to the ages and has some of the best music genres known to the world. Ghanian music or the music of Ghana is mainly composed with the help of traditional music instruments and sounds.
Even in today’s Ghanaian music, one can find traces of ancient Ghanaian music. The artists have maintained the honor of the ancient music and have successfully embedded and developed the modern music of Ghana in such a way that it reflects both the progress and the roots from which the music originates.
Traditional Ghanaian music used a lot of music classical and traditional music instruments such as drums, atunpan, kete, penpensiwa, sawuro, and others. Even today, the Ghanaian music which is produced uses these instruments to give the traditional touch.
Ghana music can be classified into four types named Contemporary music, traditional music, gospel music, and imported music. All the different types of music have their own set of instruments used to produce the music. For instance, traditional music forms using traditional instruments which are from the four categories: Percussion instruments, wind instruments, key instruments, and string instruments. These different instruments are used to produce some of the best traditional forms of Ghanaian music.
Today the contemporary form of music is very popular in Ghana. Highlife is the music genre of the contemporary form of Ghanaian music. The first ever Highlife song was recorded around the early 1900s and the genre took a flight ever since.
The songs of the Highlife music genre are contemporary songs that are made using instruments such as jazzy horns and multiple guitars. The signature style of using these guitars is by plucking the strings and chording them with only two fingers. This music genre also uses modern-day electronic instruments to compose some of the best songs.
The musical instruments such as talking drums, atunpans, flutes, blows, horns, obrante, kete, penpensiwa, gomme, seperewa, dawuro, blekete, and others are used in different styles to achieve different rhythms and sounds.
With the changing times, Ghana music has also been inclusive of other forms and styles of music brought from different parts. Afro beats is the music genre brought into Ghana in the 20th century and ever since the genre has become a part of Ghanaian music.
Though times have changed the emphasis of traditional music instruments in the Ghanaian music industry has not changed. Drums are still an important part of the music composition in the Ghanaian music.
Percussion instruments used in music production are the Xylophone (the national instrument of Ghana), Djembe, Mbira, Agogo, Maracas, shekere, and others.
Flute, reed pipes, trumpets, and horns are among the top wind music instruments used in Ghanaian music.
Harps and keyboards are the key instruments used in Ghanaian music.
Ghanaian music uses a wide variety of musical instruments to create different effects and produce different sounds. Even in modern-day Ghanaian music use of these instruments is persistent, which gives Ghanaian music the traditional touch and a modern feel.