Staff Notation

This section begins by discussing the value of notation, in general, and my rationale for
using staff notation, in particular. Next follows an account of the conventions I have
followed in my use of staff notation. Finally, there is a quick summary of how pitch and
sound quality are notated on luŋa and guŋ-gɔŋ.

The Value of Notation

On the DDD wiki, I use staff notation to visually represent Alhaji's vocables and
drumming in the Part-by-Part Sessions. Notation is a means to study the melody and
rhythm of these drum talks. The notation indicates features of drumming technique,
including the squeeze-and-release of the pressure ropes on the luŋa drums and the
"handedness" of chahira strokes on the guŋ-gɔŋ drum. The lyrics line beneath the staff
associates the musical sound of Alhaji's voice to the vocables that he chants and the
Dagbani drum language that is implicit to his drumming. (For drum language, also
follow the lyrics line while listening to the audio files my Dagbani recitation.) Although
I believe that repeated listening to the audio material on the DDD is the most valuable
way to learn this music, contemplative consideration of the staff notation also is an
important method of inquiry.

Why Staff Notation?

I have chosen to use staff notation, rather than other systems, for several reasons. First, it
is widely used around the world as a way to graphically symbolize musical sound. Many
musicians use it both to prescribe what a performer should do but also to describe
performance that has taken place. Second, it is a very powerful and refined system that is
capable of indicating many aspects of music in an elegant manner. Dagomba drumming
can be efficiently and effectively written in staff notation, in my opinion. Third, digital
software is available for computerized staff notation. Fourth, I think staff notation looks
beautiful; I get aesthetic pleasure from seeing Dagomba drumming rendered as notes on
the page.

Nevertheless, staff notation is not "natural" to Dagomba drumming, which before now
has existed in an unwritten condition. Writing it down in a medium that is primarily
associated with idioms of Western music--classical, jazz, and popular song--may strike
some users of the DDD wiki as an inappropriate imposition of an alien system of

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communication. Dagomba dance drumming is a writing-free tradition that has been
passed from person to person over generations. Confining it within a written form entails
risk. For example, oral transmission insures an interpersonal relationship between
teacher and student within a social context shaped by cultural history (see Life Story of
Abubakari Lunna). I am cautious that writing Dagomba music in staff notation may
facilitate the wrongful appropriation of African cultural achievements by strangers. But I
have come to the conclusion that Dagomba dance drumming should be regarded as a
wonderful human heritage that can provide artistic edification to everyone, not just
members of Dagomba society. In addition to issues of post-colonial politics and morality
in globalized culture, there are musical problems of potential miscommunication inherent
in using staff notation. Scholars of African music especially flag problems with staff
notation's conventions of accentuation within measures and the one-dimensional image of
rhythmic grouping for notes connected by a beam. I believe that providing the audio
material on which the notation is based mitigates this problem. Once the music becomes
familiar through repeated listening, the staff notation can be "heard" with the sound of
Alhaji's performance in mind.

Drum Talks or Complete Transcriptions

In the Part-by-Part Sessions, Alhaji demonstrates all the parts for each piece of music.
He did not chop up his performance by stopping after each drum talk. Instead, he
smoothly ran through all the material for a part, first in vocables and then in drumming. I
had already studied this material for many years and helped him plan which drum talks to
demonstrate. To make the notation documents, I "pulled the licks," that is, isolated each
drum talk, from his continuous, short, performances. Occasionally, the DDD presents a
note-for-note complete transcription of Alhaji's playing when I think it would be helpful
to follow exactly what he played. In most cases, however, the user will see a set of
phrases for each drum. My thought is that the notation will be a quick memory aid to
help you practice.

Vocables and Drum Language: Lyrics Lines

Vocables are an extremely valuable resource for learning Dagomba dance drumming.
You can practice in your head and develop memory of the material. Drum language is
key to understanding the design of drummed phrases. Both types of information appear
under the staves on lyrics lines beneath the staffs. You do not need to understand notes to

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make good use of the staff notation on the DDD site. The drum language also is
presented on separate text documents.

The lead and answer luŋa parts are most rich in drum language. In most cases, notation
of the guŋ-gɔŋ part does not show drum language because it is identical to the answer
luŋa part. When the guŋ-gɔŋ does "speak," its Dagbani texts are provided on the lyrics
line. The vocables that Alhaji chanted in his Part-by-Part demonstrations are shown for
all drum roles.

As lyrics, the syllabic division of words becomes an important feature. For drumming,
hyphens serve to correlate music notes to their implicit Dagbani meaning. (Note:
Dagbani orthography also uses hyphens, which means there are two types of hyphen
usage.) For vocables, hyphens correlate to pressure technique on luŋa. Alhaji
systematically uses polysyllabic vocables to represent notes made by squeezing and
releasing the pressure ropes after the drum is struck with the drumstick. Such long
vocables are separated by hyphens. A line stretching rightward from the final letter
shows a sound's prolongation when one syllable of Dagbani stretches over several notes.

For drum language on the lyrics line punctuation is not indicated but the first letter of
sentences and proper nouns are capitalized

Notation of the Luŋa Drum

h3Pitch
The music of the luŋa drums uses definite pitch classes. Alhaji Abubakari taught that
every luŋa drum has "its own voice." In other words, each instrument has its own proper
resonance and range of pitches. When playing in ensemble, drummers do not align
pitches among the drums. The pitches of each drum, however, are precisely intoned in
relation to each other. Non-Dagomba students find this concept of ensemble pitch
alignment to be quite strange, since we tend to think that instruments in ensemble should
be tuned together. Alhaji explained the Dagomba conception with reference to
conversation--the sound of each person's voice is unique but everyone is speaking the
same language.

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As I understand Alhaji Abubakari's way of making melody on the luŋa drum, there are
three main pitch classes: low, mid, and high. These pitch classes are represented on a 5-
line staff in G clef (lowered an octave) with notes B, D and E. In other words, the
interval from low-pitch to mid-pitch is a minor third, from mid-pitch to high-pitch is a
major second, and from high-pitch to low-pitch is a perfect fourth. Spectacularly
accurate intonation of these pitch classes was a mark of Alhaji's mastery of the luŋa.
Through vocables, we all can accurately sing the luŋa part but being able to control the
pitch of an actual drum takes years of practice.

In order to make the drum sound like the Dagbani language, Alhaji supplements the low-
pitch and mid-pitch primary pitches classes with "neighbor notes"--(1a) below-low, (1b)
above-low, (2a) below-mid, and (2b) above-mid. The neighbor pitch resolves towards
the primary pitch. Typically, Alhaji would strike the luŋa drum skin with the ropes set to
the neighbor pitch and then increase or decrease pressure so that the drum's pitch rose or
fell toward the main pitch class. In the notation on the DDD, neighbor notes to low-pitch
are A-sharp and C; neighbors for mid-pitch are C and E. The written note that represents
the actual drum stroke receives an accent mark; the written note that represents the pitch
made by pressure technique is tied to the accented note and is marked as unaccented.
Tip: carefully observe accent marks to see drum stroke action.

When a part called for a period of time without drum language, Alhaji often would play
very low-pitched filler notes that kept his hands active and maintained rhythmic groove.
These are shown as F-sharps.

Lead Luŋa "Calls"

In the original cultural context of Dagomba dance drumming, an item of repertory begins
with passages drummed by the lead luŋa player in free rhythm (also known as "speech
rhythm" by many scholars of African music). Knowledgeable drummers usually play
many praise names before signaling the ensemble to enter with music for dance. Alhaji
Abubakari was rightfully proud of his knowledge of this aspect of the lunsi tradition. It
took us many years before he accepted that non-Dagomba students could play the music
without these erudite introductory passages. For the Part-by-Part Sessions Alhaji agreed
to severely limit the calls that cue in the ensemble. He either played the absolute shortest

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"call" he would accept, or simply played the very final phrase of what would have been a
lengthy passage.

In the headings, these opening passages are labeled "call" with the tempo marked as "free
rhythm. Although the metric feeling is loose, by the end of the phrase the lead luŋa will
be in strict time that is picked up by members of the ensemble. When necessary, a
double bar line and tempo indication marks the changeover to steady tempo.

Notation of the Guŋ-gɔŋ Drum

Sound Quality of Guŋ-gɔŋ Strokes
The music of the guŋ-gɔŋ drum uses indefinite pitch. The main sounds come from
bounce-strokes and press-strokes made in the center of the drum. Bounces are loud and
prominent in the overall texture of the music; presses, which mimic the higher pitches of
the luŋa drum, are audible but not quite as loud. Much quieter and more personal to the
guŋ-gɔŋ players themselves are strokes made in the chahira zone of the drum skin with
bare hand and stick. Stick strokes in the chahira zone are much less forceful than strokes
in the center of the drum skin.

Notation of Guŋ-gɔŋ Strokes

The notes for the guŋ-gɔŋ part are placed on a 5-line percussion staff. Regular strokes in
the center of the drum are represented with oval-shaped note heads on the lowest space;
press strokes in the center of the drum are represented with X-shaped note heads on the
second lowest line. Bare hand strokes in the chahira area are represented with oval note
heads on the second lowest space; stick strokes in the chahira area are represented with
oval note heads on the third line.

General Conventions in the Notation

Headings
On notation of the Part-by-Part Sessions a boldface heading atop the first measure
identifies the piece, the instrument and its musical role. For notation of the lead luŋa
parts, the particular drum talk is identified in Dagbani. When Alhaji played slightly
different versions of answer luŋa or guŋ-gɔŋ parts, these are identified with a letter in
parentheses. The term "transcription" designates note-for-note notation of Alhaji's

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performance; otherwise, the notation isolates the various drum talks and variations being
played by Alhaji.

Tempo
Tempo in these items of dance drumming usually is either constant or speeds up
gradually during performance. Metronome markings indicate the beats per minute at
which Alhaji began his demonstration of a part.

Time Signatures
To facilitate comparison, all music is notated either in 6-8 (ternary duple) or 2-4
(quaternary duple). The time signature, which is obvious at quick glance, is not shown.
By deliberately hiding the Western time signature, I wish to encourage users to interpret
the notation according to the nature of Dagomba dance drumming. I intend to discourage
readers from assuming that the music "is in 6/8" or "in 2-4," so to speak. It is not.
Instead, its temporal organization is approximately equivalent to 6-8 or 2-4. As a
practical matter, these time signatures enable the music software to work.

Beaming
Staff notation allows the scribe--me, in this case--many options for joining notes together
with beams. For many musicians who would notate African music this flexibility has
proved problematic because you must chose one option among many. In its unwritten
form, the relationship of the sound of notes to an unsounded steady flow of beats is a
matter of internal feeling for players and listeners. Written music, on the other hand,
demands that notes be related to the beats of only one metric groove. But, as I show in
detail in my music analysis of each piece, Dagomba dance drumming conforms to
multiple patterns of rhythmic accentuation. Selecting one system of beaming, or even
using any beaming at all, inevitably presents a simplified graphic picture of a complex
sonic world. Nevertheless, I think the advantages outweigh the drawbacks. My analytic
essays are, in large part, intended to investigate the musical nuances that lie hidden in the
musical notation of the Part-by-Part Sessions.

Notes are beamed to the beat, in most cases. For notation of music in what I term
"quaternary duple time" (equivalent to 2-4 time signature), note stems are beamed to the
flow of implicit quarter note beats. Likewise, for notation of music in what I term

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"ternary duple time" (equivalent to 6-8 time signature), note stems are beamed to the flow
of implicit dotted quarter note beats. From time to time, however, musical common
sense overrides the beam-to-the-beat guideline.

In ternary duple time, three-in-the-time-of-two patterns of accentuation are endemic. In

the terms of staff notation, we can say that 3-4 accentuation patterns are omnipresent in
music written in 6-8. Beats with binary internal structure, like quarter notes, co-exist
with ternary beats that contain three faster temporal units. Accentuation relationships of
the 3:2 type time--three quarters in the duration of two dotted quarters, or, three eighths
in the duration of two dotted eighths--force a choice on the scribe: do you show the notes
in relationship to an invariant series of unsounded beats, or do you beam to call attention
to the pattern of accentuation created by the sounded notes?

In most cases, I beam to the primary schema of beats. But musical common sense and
notational elegance sometimes take precedence over theoretical rigidity. When the
phenomenal surface of the music, so to speak, is clearly establishes a 3:2 pattern, I simply
go with it (for example, see answer luŋa in Damba Sochɛndi).

Rests and Ties

The main purpose of rests is to show onbeat moments on which no note is struck. The
rest draws the reader's eye to the silent onbeat. Drummers seldom actively stop their
instrument from sounding, so rests do not show an actively created musical silence. But,
when I feel that the notation should show that a sound has ended before the next note
begins, I use rests.

Ties have two functions. First, ties show the prolongation of a note through an onbeat
moment; in other words, an offbeat drum stroke makes sound that carries through a
subsequent onbeat moment. Second, ties show notes created by not by a drum stroke but
by pressure technique, i.e., the releasing or squeezing of the antelope leather ropes that
connect the two heads of the luŋa drum (see Accents and Ties, below). (Note: Due to
score editing software issues, a tie cannot be shown for the last note in a final measure of
a notation example.)

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Pick-up Measures
The great majority of phrases do not begin on the first beat of a measure. Indeed, the
aesthetic tendency in Dagomba dance drumming is for phrases to begin off the beat and
to move towards their musical conclusion, or cadence, which often is on a subsequent
downbeat (for example, see answer luŋa in Suligu). I have made the decision to begin
notation examples with notes, not with rests or bar lines that would serve to the set the
phrase in its metric context. Thus, in many notation examples the first measure has
irregular duration. Readers seeking metric orientation, that is, to see how the beginning
of a phrase in its metric setting, should use the final measure of the phrase's notation.

The notation examples called Rhythm Notation always begin with complete measures.
Users of the site who may be confused by my representation of the phrases likely will
find these examples helpful.

Repeat Markings
In most cases, the notation of the Part-by-Part Sessions shows phrases that Alhaji repeats
many times. The answer luŋa and answer guŋ-gɔŋ parts may repeat one phrase
throughout an entire performance, while the leading parts usually repeat a drum talk
several times, often with subtle variation, before changing to another theme. Repetition,
in other words, is a core feature of Dagomba dance drumming.

In the notation system used on this site, "ad libitum" repetition usually is marked only
with an "end repeat" sign. The phrase, which begins after the clef sign, repeats again-
and-again. However, pick-up measures require use of a "begin repeat" sign. The number
of repetitions is never marked. Whenever I think that it is crucial to visually follow
Alhaji's decisions about how many times to repeat a phrase, the order in which he plays
phrases, and the nature of his variations, I provide note-for-note transcriptions.

Slurs
Rhythmic grouping not only is at issue for the setting of notes in relation to implicit beats
but also is important to the shape of longer phrases. Slurs indicate a meaningful musical
and (usually) linguistic phrase. In some cases, the meaningful unit is obvious without the
slur, which is then omitted.

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In my musical analyses I address the topic of "phrase morphology," i.e., the way in which
relatively long phrases are formed from shorter figures and motives. Rather than slur
marks, I prefer to use brackets as a way of showing rhythmic grouping.

Accents and Ties

This site details a very important dimension of Dagomba tension drum technique: the
way drummers make notes not only by striking the drum skin but also by releasing or
squeezing the pressure cords that join the rims of the drumhead fixed on each end of the
drum's body. Without these relatively quiet "pressure notes" the luŋa drum will not
sound like the Dagbani drum language texts that underlie the music. Gliding between
notes--portamento or glissando in Italianate lingo--is not ornamental, in other words, but
essential. This was among the most important realizations that emerged from my study
of this tradition with Alhaji Abubakari. Although graphically representing this dimension
of drumming makes the staff notation more difficult to read, pressure technique is
essential if one wishes to partake of Alhaji's teaching and knowledge.

Ties and accent marks indicate the gliding dimension of luŋa technique. The sound
produced by a drum stroke is shown with an accented note head, while the sound
produced by pressure technique is shown with an unaccented note head. Ties join an
unaccented "pressure" note to an accented note. In other words, an unaccented note that
is tied to a prior accented note is showing a sound that has been created by pressure
technique on the lunga ropes rather than a hit on the drum.

Occasionally, Alhaji would vary the loudness of his drum strokes. In notation of the luŋa
drum, accent marks denote a normal, strongly struck drum stroke; notes without accent
marks are lightly played.

The guŋ-gɔŋ drum has loud, booming sound from its center strokes and quiet, buzzing
sound from its strokes in the chahira zone of the drum skin. In notation of the guŋ-gɔŋ
part, accents marks indicate the relatively loud sound of the center strokes, while
unaccented notes show the quieter "chahira" strokes, that is, those played in the zone of
the drum skin above the snare.

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Notation of Special Drum Techniques--"Rolls" and "Flams"
In order for the luŋa drum to accurate mimic the sound of the Dagbani words that are the
foundation of Dagomba dance drumming the players use multi-stroke press rolls. These
special strokes, which usually consist of two very fast hits, enable the drum to
"pronounce" a rolled "r," a glottal fricative, and a quick succession of syllables. The
drum rolls may be executed by turning the wrist so that the edge of the drumstick strikes
the skin or can be made with a straight on stroke that is allowed to hit more than once. In
the notation, tremolo bars mark these two-stroke press rolls that Alhaji usually made with
"turned stick" technique.

Early in my study with Alhaji Abubakari I thought the rolled strokes were ornamental but
eventually I learned that they are a mark of good style. Alhaji did not insist on these
press rolls, suggesting that they could be omitted if a student found them too difficult. In
his view the Dagbani text would still be understandable if a drummer played a normal
single hit. The rolls are preferred but not essential, in other words. Novice players
should consider this an "advanced" feature of drumming technique that may be ignored at
the beginning of your study of Dagomba dance drumming.

Alhaji frequently ornaments notes on the guŋ-gɔŋ drum with a flam-type technique in
which the first hit is an intentionally timed stroke that is followed a split second later with
a quieter "after hit." Unlike two-stroke drum rolls on lunga, this ornament on gung-gong
is played with what Alhaji calls a "straight stroke," that is, without turning the stick.
Although these "Dagomba flams" sometimes correlate to phonetic features of drum
language, often their purpose is to make the music more beautiful--two for the price of
one, so to speak. Rather than using grace notes, I write these multi-stroke hits with an
accented note of very short duration followed by an unaccented note of longer time value.
To grasp the rhythmic timing, focus on the first note.

X-shaped Note Heads

For the lunga drum, X-shaped note heads mark press strokes, which are rare and
relatively unimportant. On the other hand, for the guŋ-gɔŋ drum x-shaped note heads
represent "ki," a very important basic stroke in which the edge of the stick head is pressed
against the drum skin.

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