Musical Shakers

Until I started studying African music, I didn't realize how significant musical shakers can be. In our culture, most people think of shaker eggs or those little maracas when they picture musical shakers. The shakers we use are pretty rudimentary, and they are used for simple effects. People just simply use them to keep time and at a little bit of extra rhythm. They do have a pleasant sound to them, and they're easy to play for people who aren't experienced with percussion. Nevertheless, it is not a particularly significant instrument.

So I was interested to discover the rich variety of musical shakers used in cultures that place a higher emphasis on hand percussion. My favorite one of all is called the shekere. It is basically a gourd covered with beaded netting. Sometimes the netting is tightly wound against the gourd and instruments played by rubbing. More often, however – particularly with larger gourds – the netting is a loose web that surrounds the gourd. The way it is played is fascinating. You throw it up and down back and forth between your hands, creating a rhythm when you catch it and bat at it.

Not only do shekeres make some of the best tones of any of the musical shakers I know, but they also can be used to make pretty complex and interesting rhythms. The true percussion masters can really put on a stage show by throwing the shekere up in the air and catching it in a rhythmic manner. I have seen some pretty complex things done with the instrument, things that you can not do with most musical shakers.

Nonetheless, even though shaker eggs have their charm. Most people simply shake them back and forth to get a little bit of a beat, and this is fine for using in the background of songs, but you can do so much more with them. You can slide them back and forth in a slow, sinuous rhythm that is surprising in its complexity. It is hard to mic them, and they are almost never used in this manner, but I've seen it done to good effect.

Of course, the most classical musical shakers of all are the humble maracas. You see maracas in many different forms, sometimes used in traditional shamanic ceremonies and other times played by backup singers for some of the leading bands in the world. For such a universally overlooked instrument, the maraca really does have quite a surprising resume.