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goat-skin rattles, drums, and maracas, as well as cowbells. The wind instru-
ments of
Goombay
music are often made from conch shells, though standard
flutes and pipes are also common. The word
Goombay
comes from an African
word that means “beat” or “rhythm,” and drums form a vital part of the
music.
Since the days of slavery,
goombay
has been played in the Bahamas by so-
called rake and scrape bands. The original rake and scrape bands used
improvised instruments because slaves could not afford traditional ones.
Drums were typically made from goatskin stretched over the top of a pork
barrel. To create a distinctive scraping sound, a metal file was run across a
carpenter’s saw. A washtub with a string through it that was tied to a long
stick functioned as a kind of violin. Today’s rake and scrape bands supple-
ment their sound with modern instruments like the electric guitar and the
saxophone, but the feel of the old music remains.
One other type of Bahamian music deserves mention: religious music.
Some hymns that can be heard today at a Bahamian religious service resem-
ble American slave spirituals—not surprising, since many slaves were
brought to the Bahamas from the American South in the late 18th century.
Gospel, another musical form associated especially with African –Americans,
is popular in Bahamian religious services. But then, so too are traditional
European hymns—a reflection of the diverse influences that have shaped the
Bahamian people and their culture.
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