Relationship between Wood Traits and Sound Frequency at Different Pitch Levels of Talking Drums (Gangan) Manufactured from Aningeria robusta Wood

Abstract

Wood is a unique material for making musical instruments and is used to make West African talking drums, whose pitch can be regulated depending upon how the player strikes the head of drum and changes its tension. Additionally, talking drum manufacturers have certain wood preferences, and in the absence of preferred species, they use supposedly unsuitable woods. Therefore, there is a need to examine wood traits in relation to the pitch of a talking drum. This study was designed to determine the existing relationship between selected wood traits and the frequency of talking drums made from A. robusta wood. Three A. robusta trees were obtained from Onigambari Forest Reserve. From each tree, three bolts of 50 cm in length were obtained from the base, middle, and top of the tree to determine selected properties (moisture content (MC), wood basic density (WBD), modulus of elasticity (MOE), modulus of rupture (MOR), and manufacturing of talking drums). A spectrum analyzer was used to analyze the sound frequency of the talking drums at three pitch levels (high, medium, low). A completely randomized block design was used and the data obtained was analyzed using descriptive statistics, ANOVA, and correlation analyses at α 0.05. Sound frequency was not significant along sampling height, but was significant at pitch levels. Additionally, the correlation analysis between wood traits and sound frequency was not significant. Thus, wood cannot be recommended for talking drums’ optimal acoustic performance based on wood traits alone.

Comparative assessment of acoustic properties of talking drums made from hourglass shell from different geometric shapes of Gmelina arborea (Roxb.) wood

“…The mean values of frequency obtained from this study were higher than those obtained by Noah et al (2014) and Olaoye et al (2016). They both obtained a mean sound frequency of 159 and 149 Hz for talking drum made from G. arborea and Aningeria robusta wood, respectively.…”