Clapsticks, also spelt clap sticks and also known as ', ', clappers, musicstick or just stick, are a traditional Australian Aboriginal instrument. They serve to maintain rhythm in voice chants, often as part of an Aboriginal ceremony.
They are a type of Drum stick, percussion mallet or claves that belongs to the idiophone category.
Unlike drum stick, which are generally used to strike a drum, clapsticks are intended for striking one stick on another.
Origin and nomenclature
In northern Australia, clapsticks would traditionally accompany the
didgeridoo, and are called bimli or bilma by the
Yolngu people of north-east
Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia.
Boomerang clapsticks
Boomerang clapsticks are similar to regular clapsticks but they can be shaken for a rattling sound or be clapped together.
Technique
The usual technique employed when using clapsticks is to clap the sticks together to create a rhythm that goes along with the song.
See also
External links
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A survey of traditional south-eastern Australian Indigenous music by Barry McDonald (book chapter)
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Curkpatrick, Samuel. "Productive Ambiguity: Fleshing out the Bones in Yolŋu Manikay" Song" Performance, and the Australian Art Orchestra’s" Crossing Roper Bar"." Critical Studies in Improvisation/Études critiques en improvisation 9, no. 2 (2013)[2]
