Day 14 ~ Ghana (Gome)

* The GOME is a deep bass drum which the musician actually sits on and uses both Hands & Feet to play ~  WATCH HERE  

(The Gome is on the right, on the left is perhaps an adowa peg-tension traditional Ghanian drum; perfect complement to the bass with a unique, higher, mellow sound.)

The Gome drum was introduced to the Ghanaians by a group of Ga people in the 1940's, when they returned home to Ghana after a period of work on the island Fernando Po in Equatorial Guinea.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdYYiX8WucI

Now, to get you ON yOuR feet & DANCING ~ here is some amazing EWE Drumming!

And, to CHEER your DAY ~ This is a happy percussion ensemble playing in a park in Ghana.

Though I haven't been to Africa yet, I have had a strong connection, especially to Ghana, since I was 10 and met my best friend, Yao.  Yao, the great grandson of the former King of Ghana (Yao humbly denies being ROYAL as the King's position rotates through the main ethnic groups, rather than following the line of heredity ~ whatEVAH, his boisterous spirit and gushing heart are as royal as things get) and I decided that we had been twins in Morocco in a previous lifetime...so we go way back before our Chutes and Ladders Board games when we were 10.  On my daily walk home from school (where Yao's house was conviently half-way between school and my house), I stopped in to get my daily dose of Africa - the rhythms and music coursed through my blood as amazing Ghanaian singing loudly flowed out of the speakers in his living room day and night,  plus (how I wish it was around the corner from my house now) super spicy and delicious food was always steaming ready in the kitchen, and the gloriously booming voice of Yao's poet father, Vincent, and the exhuberance of his mother, Peace, were always welcoming me into this beautiful other world.

This 40-day Virtual World Tour of Music correlates with the World Music House kickstarter crowdfund. (Click the orange words for more details!)