Video
Grades
- 6
- 7
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
Episode
8
A circular dance called the "Ring Shout" was a part of Gullah-Geechee Christian worship services for many years.
Gullah Music
This collection explores various genres of music from Africa. Flavors of these African music styles, such as Gullah music are prevalent in coastal regions through the southeastern United States.
Video
Grades
- 6
- 7
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
Episode
7
Scholars have located a song linking a family from Georgia to the village of Senehun Ngola in Sierra Leone. Linguist Lorenzo Dow Turner traveled to Georgia in 1931 to hear people speaking and singing...
Audio
Grades
- 3
- 4
Music is another important part of life on the Sea Islands. Most of the Gullah music is found in religious practices. Although spirituals had a Christian message, they were heartfelt expressions of...
Document
Grades
- Pre K
- Kindergarten
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
Gullah traditions are the customs, beliefs and ways of life that have been passed down among Sea Island families. Making sweetgrass baskets, quilting, and knitting fishing nets are a few of the crafts...
Interactive
Grades
- Pre K
- Kindergarten
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
Students will understand how enslaved Africans created music for their worship experience. Religious meetings in “praise houses” provided the spiritual outlet for enslaved Africans on the plantation...
Interactive
Grades
- Pre K
- Kindergarten
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
Students will understand that music and material culture became a mode of covert communication between slaves. Aunt Pearlie Sue is our guide as students uncover hidden messages in the work songs...
Interactive
Grades
- Pre K
- Kindergarten
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
Students will understand traditional blues form that contains three four-measure phrases that follow the pattern AAB. Let Reverend Leroy show you how to express your sad feelings by composing a blues...
Audio
Grades
- Pre K
- Kindergarten
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
Episode
9
Blues and country music contributed to a style called rhythm and blues. This was an early form of what we now call rock and roll. It appealed to a younger audience that liked to dance to the sounds of...
Audio
Grades
- Pre K
- Kindergarten
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
Episode
3
Enslaved Africans sang songs as they worked to help keep the pace of the task they were doing. A leader called out a verse or yell and others responded. This is the call-and-response singing tradition...
Audio
Grades
- Pre K
- Kindergarten
- 1
- 2
Episode
12
African call-and-response patterns and improvisation survived the Middle Passage and became two of the basic elements of one of today’s most popular forms of music. In the 1970s, rap music began in...
Audio
Grades
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
Episode
2
European slave traders brought Africans to the New World on ships as early as the 1400s. These voyages across the Atlantic Ocean are called the Middle Passage. It was a terrible experience for the...
Audio
Grades
- Pre K
- Kindergarten
- 1
- 2
Episode
11
Reggae music is a Jamaican style of music that has roots in African music and rhythm and blues, or early rock and roll. Reggae songs are usually about social issues, politics and the Rastafarian...
Audio
Grades
- Pre K
- Kindergarten
- 1
- 2
Episode
5
After the Civil War and emancipation, freed men and women struggled to find work and make a new life for their families. The songs about these difficult times were called the blues, a musical style...
Audio
Grades
- Pre K
- Kindergarten
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
Episode
8
Country music as we know it today grew out of blues and folk music. In country music’s earliest form, southern musicians both white and black, created music for the working class that told stories...
Audio
Grades
- Pre K
- Kindergarten
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
Episode
7
Jazz music was born out of the blues. The key element was syncopation (syn-co-pa-tion) that stressed the off beats of the rhythm. In the same way that Gullah language is a mixture of African and...
Audio
Grades
- Pre K
- Kindergarten
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
Episode
4
Spirituals developed at the same time as work songs on the plantations. Although they were religious songs with a Christian message, spirituals were also heartfelt expressions of the slave experience...
Audio
Grades
- Pre K
- Kindergarten
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
Episode
6
After slavery ended, some African American churches shifted from traditional spirituals to a new kind of religious music called gospel. This style of music brought together the elements of the “shout”...
Audio
Grades
- Pre K
- Kindergarten
- 1
- 2
Episode
10
Rhythm and blues was an early form of rock and roll but it also contributed to a smoother sounding musical style called soul. In 1960, Berry Gordy, Jr. began a recording label in Detroit, Michigan...
Audio
Grades
- Pre K
- Kindergarten
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
Episode
1
Music was an important tradition in Africa centuries before Africans were brought to America. Singing was a part of everyday life when people were at work, worship or play. The drum was the most...
Video
Grades
- Pre K
- Kindergarten
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
Gullahnet: Shake Em, Shake Em
