Native American music

Introduction
Music in Native American culture
- Musical events
- Music and language
Native American musical styles and genres
- Aspects of style
- North America
  - Eastern Woodlands
  - Plains
  - Great Basin
  - Southwest
  - Northwest Coast
  - Arctic
- Mexico and Central America
  - Northwestern Mexico
  - Central Mexico
  - Maya area
  - Atlantic Coast
- South America
  - Andean Highlands
  - Tropical Forest
  - Southern Cone
  - Circum-Caribbean
Musical instruments in the Americas
- Idiophones
- Membranophones
- Aerophones
- Chordophones
Music history of the Native Americans
- Colonial mixtures
- Indigenous trends from 1800
- Participation in art music
The study of American Indian musics

References & Edit History Related Topics

Images & Videos

Native American musicians in colorful regalia play a large decorated drum together at a pow wow, with drumsticks striking the drumhead.

A dancer in a bright pink shawl with fringe, wearing traditional regalia adorned with blue and black accents, performs at an outdoor cultural event.

Gerimiah Holy Bull of the Sicangu Lakota Oyate tribe performs a Fancy Dance in colorful regalia on grassland in Badlands National Park, with rocky cliffs in the background.

At a Glance

Native American music summary

Quizzes

Young girl wearing a demin jacket playing the trumpet (child, musical instruments, Asian ethnicity)

Sound Check: Musical Vocabulary Quiz

Related Questions

How are Native American Church songs performed during peyote prayer meetings?
How are audio and video recordings used to preserve Native American music?
How are bull-roarers used in Native American healing and rain rituals?
How are conch-shell horns used to signal ceremonial events?
How are flutes used in Plains Indian courtship music?
How are humor and ritual clowns used in Native American ceremonies?
How are rattles made from gourds, turtle shells, cocoons, and manufactured materials?
How can dreams and visions lead to the creation of new Native American songs?
How did African musical instruments influence Native American music in the Americas?
How did Christian hymns become part of Native American musical traditions?
How did Ghost Dance songs and dances express religious beliefs?
How did Native American communities revive Indigenous musical repertories during the 20th century?
How did Native American musicians adapt European instruments after contact with Europeans?
How did World War I help revive powwow-related homecoming dances?
How did fiddle music become a traditional style in Native American communities?
How did powwows develop into intertribal celebrations of Native American culture?
How did the O’odham develop the waila fiddle repertory?
How did the matachines dance become part of Pueblo ceremonial life?
How did urban relocation after World War II spread Plains powwow music and dance styles?
How do Native American communities decide who has the right to perform particular songs and dances?
How do Native American communities evaluate the success of a musical performance?
How do Navajo and Apache singing styles differ from Pueblo singing styles?
How do Plains Indian songs use descending melodic patterns?
How do men and women have complementary musical roles in some Native American communities?
How do oral traditions preserve Native American musical repertories?
How do panpipe players in Central and South America use interlocking performance styles?
How does Plains Indian singing differ from singing traditions of the Northwest Coast?
How does a musical bow produce sound in Native American traditions?
How does call and response work in Eastern Woodlands dance songs?
How does music connect dance, spirituality, and community life in Native American cultures?
How does the music of the Northwest Coast use changing meters and tempo shifts?
How is music used in the Green Corn ceremony and Iroquois Longhouse events?
How is the Apache violin made from an agave plant?
How was music used in Indian Shaker Church worship?
What kinds of Navajo and Apache ceremonies include music?
What kinds of events feature Plains Indian music?
What musical features distinguish Pueblo ceremonial dance songs?
What roles do music and dance play in Native American ceremonial events?
What spiritual meanings can rattles have in Native American communities?
What types of songs are found in Native American musical traditions of North America?
What vocal qualities are associated with Plains Indian music?
Which Native American popular musicians became widely known in North America?
Which instruments accompany songs of the Native American Church?
Which instruments are especially important in Eastern Woodlands Native American music?
Who can play the drum in northern and southern powwow traditions?
Who was Thomas Commuck, and why was his 1845 hymnal important?
Why did the U.S. government ban the Ghost Dance in 1890?
Why do some Native American communities treat songs as inherited property?
Why is singing often more important than purely instrumental music in Native American traditions of North America?

Entertainment & Pop Culture Popular Music Genres Folk Music

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External Websites

Texas State Historical Association - Native American Music
Indians.org - Native American Music

Native American music

Written by

Victoria Lindsay Levine

Professor of Music, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colo. Author of Writing American Indian Music and others.

Victoria Lindsay Levine

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

History

Native American music, music of the indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere. The Americas contain hundreds of native communities, each with its own distinctive history, language, and musical culture. These communities—although united in placing music at the center of public life—have developed extraordinarily diverse and multifaceted performance traditions. This article provides a general introduction to Native American musics with treatments of the roles of music in culture, musical styles and genres, musical instruments, music history,...

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