Learning a rhyth called konkonba, or konkomba or Kankanba

[kouranko]

Konkoba and Kankanba are not the same rhythm. Kankanba is in 4/4. Does anyone know where it originates from and why it was played? I don't see an answer above, but I am a bit confused by some of the posts as to which rhythm they are talking about. Thanks!

[michi]

I have also learned a rhythm called konkomba from bolokada that is a rhythm in 4/4 and I believe has some relation to a bird.

kankanba. harvest and soli related.

So, that's the 4/4 rhythm that was mentioned, different from konkoba? Do you have notation or any recordings? I'd like to learn

Michi.

[djembeweaver]

There's often confusion over time signatures, especially compound time.

9/8 means you have 3 beats in a bar and each beat can be split into 3 (so the 9 comes from 3x3)

Time signatures are really just a convention for scoring. You could quite happily score Konkoba in 9/8, where the dominant phrasing is two bars. Alternatively you could score it as one bar of 18/8.

[Dugafola]

I'll try to post a recording.

it's played for the boys that watch the fields at night during harvest.

it's a binary rhythm.

[kawa]

Oops my bad, I couldn't find the right words in English sorry. Thanks for the correction Daniel.

What I meant by "ternary rhythm in 3 beats" was to distinguish rhythms like Konkoba or Koreduga from rhythms like Sökö or Soli.

It's important to notice the difference because many intermediates and sometimes advanced players who don't know the rhythm well will fumble with the accompaniment and will play Konkoba as though it was a more "regular" ternary rhythm.

It teaches me the valuable lesson I should get my vocabulary and ideas straight before posting more often, and get some basic musicology knowledge. I've always played without any knowledge of it because in my experience all the people focusing on it couldn't play well, and acquired mental barriers preventing them to learn the music (I know it's not a rule, but it was a common occurence at the time). But to communicate with others by text, I realize now it's better to not be completely ignorant of it lol.

Thanks.

Kawa.