Clapstick
Traditional Australian Aboriginal instrument
Clapsticks, also spelt clap sticks and also known as bilma, bimli, 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 drumstick, percussion mallet or claves that belongs to the idiophone category. Unlike drumsticks, which are generally used to strike a drum, clapsticks are intended for striking one stick on another.
01Origin 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.
02Boomerang clapsticks
Boomerang clapsticks are similar to regular clapsticks but they can be shaken for a rattling sound or be clapped together.
03Technique
The usual technique employed when using clapsticks is to clap the sticks together to create a rhythm that goes along with the song.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Clapstick”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Clapsticks.JPG by Andrewa, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Didgeridu and clap sticks.jpg by Owen65, CC BY-SA 2.0
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