My First Full Day: Xylophones And Lots of Music

After a quick breakfast of bananas, pineapples, tea, toast and pineapple juice I headed off to the University of Ghana where I met Dr. Kongo, the head of the music department as well as John Collins, and my xylophone teacher Aaron Bebe Sukura.

Aaron and I spent the afternoon under a tree outside the music department building with a pair of xylophones. The xylophones are made with slats of wood on a wooden-stick frame with gourds underneath each bar to resonate the sound. The tuning for the xylophone is a five-note scale: CDEGA - a bit like taking a Western keyboard and getting rid of the F's and B's and all the accidentals. It took me a while to get my mind around the tuning and the layout of the keyboard. It also doesn't help that the bars are different widths, but hey no excuses.

Here are some other random observations:

There is incredible energy in this place; it is crowded and busy and noisy and at times overwhelming...but beautiful and exciting at the same time.

When two friends meet they shake hands and then pull their fingers away slowly, hesitate for a second, and then each one snaps their fingers before releasing...totally cool. And you don't just shake hands once; you shake again at important parts of the conversation - 3-4 times in a few minutes.

all the taxis honk their horns all the time. My taxi driver was honking the rhythm of the reggae beat of the song on the radio...

Best to all,

Patrick