Membranophones are instruments that have a skin or membrane stretched over a frame; musical sound is produced by striking or rubbing the membrane or by setting the membrane into motion with sound waves (as with a kazoo). Drums are the largest subcategory of membranophones. Native Americans make drums in many sizes from a wide variety of natural and manufactured materials. Three basic kinds of drums exist among indigenous groups in the Americas: single-headed drums, double-headed drums, and kettledrums. Single-headed drums consist of one drum head stretched across a frame. Shallow hand drums of this type are widespread in North America; for example, Plains peoples use a single-headed drum to accompany hand games, personal songs, or curing songs. The drum frame is made from a strip of wood about 5 cm (2 inches) deep that has been soaked and bent into a circle about 33 to 50 cm (13 to 20 inches) in diameter. The drum head, made of deer hide, is stretched across the frame and fastened with thongs or thumb tacks. Thongs are also stretched across the open side of the drum to form a handle; the singer usually holds the drum in his left hand and strikes the head with a stick held in his right hand. Some Plains hand drums have snares, or short sticks attached to the head by a thong, which create a buzzing sound when the drum is struck. Inuit peoples also use single-headed hand drums to accompany ceremonial dances. The Inuit drum may be as much as almost a metre (39 inches) in diameter and has a wooden handle attached to the frame; the head is made from caribou hide, and the drum is played by striking the edge of the rim rather than the head itself. The huéhuetl, a single-headed drum with a cylindrical wooden shell, originated in ancient times but is still used in Central Mexico.

Double-headed drums come in many sizes and shapes. Pueblo peoples accompany certain ceremonial dances with a cylindrical drum about 75 cm (30 inches) high and 38 cm (15 inches) in diameter. Made from cottonwood, the shell is scraped to a thickness of about 15 mm (about 0.5 inch); the heads are stretched across each open end and laced together with strips of hide. Two small wooden objects are placed inside the drum shell—a ball symbolizing the earth and a cylinder representing the universe. These objects bounce when the drum is played, adding complexity to its sound. An Ojibwa double-headed dance drum is made from a wooden washtub or barrel. The bottom of the tub is partly cut out to enhance the drum’s resonance. The drum measures about 65 cm (25 inches) in diameter at the top and about 56 cm (22 inches) at the bottom and is about 33 cm (13 inches) tall. The drum is suspended from stakes while it is played in order to help it resonate, and it is decorated with a cloth skirt, a beaded belt and tabs, fur strips, and additional pendants and tassels. The Warao of Venezuela make a double-headed drum with a frame shaped like an hourglass, with heads made from skin of the howler monkey. Some Native Americans attach snares to double-headed drums; the Mississippi Choctaw use a double-headed snare drum to accompany processions and to generate enthusiasm during ball game performances. In addition, native Andeans sometimes use indigenous snare drums to accompany panpipe ensembles.

Kettledrums can be made from wooden, ceramic, or metal containers covered with hide or with rubber from an inner tube; sometimes this kind of drum is partially filled with water, which affects the instrument’s tone quality. Kettledrums are widespread throughout the Americas; they usually accompany ceremonial dances or shamanic rituals. The Mapuche people of Argentina make a ceremonial drum called the kultrún from a wooden bowl covered by a skin fastened with human hair or animal sinew. The shaman places various objects inside the body of the kultrún, such as small rocks, feathers, or healing herbs, and paints the drum head with designs that hold personal significance. Only female shamans play the kultrún, because they are considered able to transcend the human realm to communicate with spirit beings and ancestors. Eastern Woodlands musicians make kettledrums from small wood or ceramic pots covered with a hide and partially filled with water; the drummer may place a lump of charcoal, healing herbs, a potsherd, or other materials inside the pot to symbolize natural elements and forces.

Among Native Americans, ceremonial drums are treated with great care and respect. North American powwow drums are placed on a blanket or stand during performance and are covered when not in use. They are smudged with tobacco in a special sunrise ceremony before the public powwow events, and neither drugs nor alcohol may be used near the drums. In addition, paraphernalia such as drumsticks, stands, or medicine bags may belong to a particular drum. The Ojibwa dance drum is regarded as a living being, and great care is taken with its construction and decoration. For the Mapuche, the life of a kultrún comes to an end with the death of its owner, and it is either buried with her or destroyed. The sound of the drum conveys symbolic meaning for many Native Americans. A rapid drumbeat in certain songs from the Northwest Coast signifies the transformation of a Thunderbird into a human state.

Aerophones

Aerophones require an airstream to produce sound; they may be whirled through the air (bull-roarer) or blown into by a player (flutes, whistles, reed instruments, and horns). Bull-roarers, made of a wooden slab tied to a string or rawhide thong, are whirled in the air to create sound; they are significant in some native healing and conjuring practices. Arctic peoples used bull-roarers as part of a ritual to harden snow, making travel easier, while the O’odham people of the southwestern United States used a bull-roarer in earlier times to imitate the sound of rain in rituals calling for rain.

Flutes and whistles are tubular or globular vessels with an edge against which the player blows. Native American flutes and whistles come in many shapes and sizes and are made from various materials, including wood, bone, cane, clay, and bamboo. The number and position of finger holes, specific design of the mouth hole, and number of pipes involved are all features that differentiate various kinds of flutes. In the Americas, end-blown or vertical flutes are most common; these are played by blowing air directly over the rim of the mouth hole. The mouth hole may be plain (cut straight across), notched, or connected to an internal duct. Panpipes exemplify end-blown flutes with a plain mouth hole. Played throughout Central and South America, panpipes involve a set of tubes with graduated lengths; the tubes are bound together in a row. Panpipes are usually made in two rows and are intended to be played as a pair by two performers using interlocking style. Duct flutes are also widespread; these have an internal block that forces the airstream against the beveled edge of an air hole. (The recorder is a European duct flute.) Indigenous duct flutes are played throughout the Americas, but the best-known example is the Plains courting flute, made popular by contemporary performers such as Carlos Nakai. The Pame people of Central Mexico have an unusual kind of duct flute called a mitote in which a mirliton covers the air hole, altering the instrument’s tone colour. In addition to end-blown flutes, some Native Americans also play side-blown or horizontal flutes, which have a lateral mouth hole; the Peruvian pitu is an example. The Waiãpi people of French Guiana have a side-blown flute that is played nasally, although nose flutes are otherwise rare in the Americas. Whistles are essentially a simple form of end-blown flute that produce one or two pitches; these are used throughout the Americas for ritual purposes.

In reed instruments, the stream of air passes over a lamella made from a thin strip of cane or wood, causing it to vibrate. Among Native Americans, reed instruments are used primarily among South American Indians, particularly in the Tropical Forest and circum-Caribbean areas. The Yekuana people of southern Venezuela play an end-blown free-reed bamboo instrument called the tekeyë, which has a lamella inside the pipe. Although the player’s lips do not touch the lamella, it vibrates when he blows into the pipe. The tekeyë is played in pairs; one is considered male, and the other is considered female. The Warao play another kind of end-blown reed instrument known as the isimoi, played in pairs during the Warao harvest festival. In addition to these clarinet-like instruments, some South American Indians play ribbon-type reed instruments made from a coiled blade of grass or a folded leaf.

Horns produce musical sound when the player vibrates his lips against the mouth hole. Most Native American horns are end-blown, have a cylindrical bore, and are made from bamboo, wood, bark, bone, clay, or calabash. The Waiãpi people of the Tropical Forest area have an end-blown horn called the nhimia poku that can be played as a solo instrument or in ensembles, depending upon the ritual context. End-blown conch-shell horns with a spiral bore are fairly widespread among Native Americans, who use them primarily for signaling purposes; the Cayuga of the Eastern Woodlands area play a conch-shell horn to announce Longhouse ceremonial events. Native Andeans play another kind of spiral-shaped horn called the wakrapuku, which is made from sections of cattle horn or pieces of sheet metal; the instrument is played in pairs during an annual fertility ritual. The Mapuche play an end-blown horn called the trutruka, made from a bamboo tube wrapped in horse intestine and capped with a cow horn resonator at the distal end. The trutruka is played by Mapuche men in the context of annual harvest rituals; similar horns are used for signaling elsewhere in the Andes.

In sacred traditions throughout the Americas, wind is associated with spirit beings as well as with breath, the essence of life. For this reason, Native American aerophones are imbued with special meaning and are strongly associated with shamanism and sacred ceremonies. North American Indian flutes may be incised with symbolic designs or decorated with feathers and carved fetishes. Many native peoples use wind instruments to communicate with spirits; for example, peoples of the Northwest Coast use a small wooden whistle to signal the presence of spirit beings at ceremonials. In addition, wind instruments represent the personification of specific spirit beings for some groups; music played on the Yekuana tekeyë represents the songs and dialogue of mythological animals.

Chordophones

Chordophones have one or more stretchable strings attached to a frame or sound box; sound is produced by plucking, rubbing, striking, or bowing the string. The musical bow is a kind of chordophone indigenous to the Americas. Musical bows consist of a string stretched between the two ends of a curved stick; the string may be struck, plucked, or rubbed to create musical sound. This instrument rarely appears in contemporary Native American musics, but it has existed among peoples of the Southwest, Great Basin, Northwestern Mexico, Atlantic Coast, Tropical Forest, and Southern Cone areas. Musical bows continue to be played by some native peoples from Mexico and South America. Peoples of the Chaco region in the Southern Cone have a musical bow called the cajuavé, which the player holds between his teeth and strikes with a small stick, using his mouth as a resonator. The cajuavé is played as a solo instrument by men. The Aché (Guayakí) people of the Tropical Forest also have a musical bow for which they use a clay pot or metal bucket as a resonator. Another indigenous chordophone played by the Aché is the terokará, a zither with five to seven parallel strings stretched horizontally over a board; the performer places one end of the board inside a clay or metal resonator.

After contact with Europeans, American Indians developed many other chordophones based on construction and playing techniques of European prototypes. However, native peoples modified and adapted these instruments to suit their own aesthetic values, musical styles, and performance contexts; thus, over the centuries, these instruments have become indigenous. Some chordophones developed by Native Americans in the early postcontact period include the harp, guitar, and fiddle. Harps consist of strings stretched perpendicularly between a straight or curved neck and a sound box; the player plucks the strings. Harps are widespread among native peoples of Latin America, where they have become a central component of indigenous musics. The Quichua of highland Ecuador play such harps at weddings, children’s wakes, and private masses. Guitars are also used in indigenous music throughout Latin America; they feature one or more strings stretched parallel between a sound box and a straight neck. Guitars appear in a wide range of shapes and sizes; some Andeans play a small guitar called the charango, which has 8 to 15 strings and can be made from an armadillo shell. Fiddles, as a class of chordophones, are similar to guitars except that the strings are bowed rather than plucked. Many Native communities have developed indigenous fiddles, which they may prefer to call violins. The Apache of the Southwest make a one- or two-string instrument called tsii’edo’a’tl (which they term a violin in English) from the hollow stalk of an agave plant; the instrument can be played in social and ceremonial contexts as well as for personal enjoyment.

Over time, American Indians have altered and adapted the materials used in constructing musical instruments. In the early 20th century, some Eastern Woodlands peoples made water drums from maple syrup buckets, while others used wooden kegs. Peoples from the Northwest Coast have used metal gun barrels to create end-blown flutes, while the Wayana of South America have made flutes and horns from plastic pipe. By the late 20th century, many North American Indians used sections of plastic pipe as drum frames. In addition, for centuries American Indians have adopted and adapted the musical instruments and repertories of Europeans. These kinds of musical interaction and exchange illustrate the dynamic nature of native musical traditions and cultural processes.