RYTHM KINGDOMKaShaKa.com /audio /video /how_to
Nii Tettey Tetteh is one of the world's best Kashaka players.
He is an internationally acclaimed musician, educator and composer from Southern Ghana, and his father was a fisherman. His family is the hereditary keeper of his village's royal drums. He has kept up this family tradition all of his life by struggling to maintain and nurture the traditional instruments, music and rhythms of West Africa. He teaches and performs all over the world, and wherever he goes, he brings his Kashakas.
Nii Tettey Tetteh has not only mastered how to play 2 Kashakas at once, he plays different rhythms in each hand, creating beautiful and complex polyrhythms. He demonstrates them to students and audiences wherever he travels, and has inspired hundreds of people to lean to play Kashakas.
He is from the Ga people, and in his language, a Kashaka is called a "snuff container". About 100 years ago, adults used the small gourds to hold their snuff, a form of tobacco used for sniffing. Young people who weren't interested in tobacco used the gourds for a better purpose, by putting stones in them instead and tying them together with string. Today, many Ghaneans enjoy using Kashakas to make basic rhythms.
Now, through the internet and an instructional video created with Rhythm Kingdom (coming soon!), Nii Tettey Tetteh will be able to reach thousands of new people like you and show you the fun you can have playing Kashakas.
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