Melody (indlela) means a footpath.
Music (umculo) means singing.  

“If you can talk you can sing and if you can walk you can dance.”

Traditional Zulu music is known as Ingoma.

Ingoma (Dance) is performed collectively and in community. There are many different ngoma styles played by different people in the various places where they live …   People dance, play drums, dress and clap in different ways.

Some of the regional dances are, umzansi (South), isiShameni (Kranskop, Nkandla) , isiBhaca (Far South), isiKhuze, isiZulu (North).

The Umakhweyane (brace gourd bow) when played, produces overtones which provide a chord structure and a harmonic feature which is very essential in Zulu music.

Overtones arise from the body of the musical instrument (the wooden part of the musical bow).

The effect of transportation on Zulu Music : Tribute to Transnet / Portnet

•  Western instruments came in with the sailors on the ships.

The guitar (isiginga) could have been introduced by Portuguese explorers as early as the 1880's. In the guitar what is represented are the different voices of the people. The guitar is known for its powers to seduce young womans hearts in courting.

The concertina was inherited from the Boere Orkes. It was said to make a responsible man of its player. The concertina was very popular as it is capable of imitating voices in a polyphonic setting.

•  Workers would sing whilst they worked and musicians would play their instruments. And thus hard work became light work.

Music was a central part of the working culture of the Zulu people. It was on their labour that this country was built and it was through music that their labour was sustained.

(The development of the ischatimiya style of singing is an example. Ischatimiya became best known as the harmonic barber shop singing of the migrant labourers working on the gold mines. It also has its routes in the traditional music of KwaZulu Natal. It is sung in a group.)

Maskanda means a virtuoso instrumentalist who plays traditional music on the Western instruments. Maskanda' was termed after the Afrikaans word ' musikante ' to mean musician.

THE GUITAR STYLES OF MASKANDA

Over the years Maskanda has become strongly associated with the guitar.

The first style a guitarist learnt to play would be the style most commonly heard in his home area, the style of his roots.

Until the 1950's the technique most commonly used in playing the guitar was ukuvamba (vamping style).

John Bhengu 'Phuzushukela' (drink the Sugar) is attributed to be the inventor of the ukupika style. The tuning of the guitar was changed. The first string was taken down a whole tone from E to D.

THE FORM OF MASKANDA

Typically in Maskanda, the song starts with a message (izihlabo). "This is what I am about to play and this is who I am."  

Izibongo (praise poetry) may accompany the dance to name and respect the authors (like a traditional copyright).

MASKANDA ARTISTS

Mashizolo has puppets attached to his udloko (traditional violin) and these perform dances to the accompaniment of his music.

Maskanda is alive to the youth as it has carried change. Therefore new names with new styles such as Nothembi Mqabanga, Ntombi Semala…

FESTIVALS The giants of Maskanda festival and the Zulu traditional Dance Competition. An annual competition crowns a 'bull' of Maskanda, Names such as Mfazonyama, Shiyani Ngobo, Sipho Mcunu, Hashi Mhlope have associated themselves with the genre.

RESEARCH AND INFORMATION

Much information extracted from A Study of the Guitar Styles in Zulu Maskanda Music by Nollene Jacquine Davies : With special thanks to "the hymns of Isaiah Shembe, Izihlabelo Zamanazaretha," B.N Mthethwa and interviews with Thanduxolo Zulu, Edmund Mhlongo and Mashizolo :