The talking drum is a
West African drum whose pitch can be regulated to the extent that it is said the drum "
talks". The player puts the drum under one shoulder and beats the instrument with a stick. A talking drum player raises or lowers the pitch by squeezing or releasing the drum's strings with the upper arm. This can produce highly informative sounds to convey complicated messages. The ability to change the drum's pitch is analogous to the
language tonality of some African languages.
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