Table 1. Description of the music instruments in the Yewevu ensemble

  • Bell, tingo, gankogui, struck with a straight wooden stick.
  • Rattle, axatse, a gourd covered with a net of seeds, struck downward against thigh and upward against weak-hand palm; normally many rattles are played in unison.
  • High-pitched drums, adzida, kaganu, two upright drums of lower (1) and higher pitch (2) with slim dimensions, each having a single head of goat skin, struck with two sticks.
  • Response drum, asivui, kidi, lower pitched than high-pitched drums and played with larger sticks but otherwise of the same barrel-shaped construction.
  • Lead drum, agbivu and/or sogo, both with single heads but sogo is played with two straight sticks or one stick-one bare hand, while agbivu lies flat to the ground with its head propped on a low stand-like stool and is struck with knobbed sticks.*

* When not playing the lead drum part, sogo may double the response drum part.