Clapstick
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20231223082343im_/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/55/Didgeridu_and_clap_sticks.jpg/220px-Didgeridu_and_clap_sticks.jpg)
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.
Origin and nomenclature[edit]
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[edit]
Boomerang clapsticks are similar to regular clapsticks but they can be shaken for a rattling sound or be clapped together.
Technique[edit]
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[edit]
External links[edit]
- A survey of traditional south-eastern Australian Indigenous music by Barry McDonald (book chapter)
- Moyle, Alice M. (1978). Aboriginal Sound Instruments (PDF). Aboriginal SoundInstrumentsAlice M MoyleCompanion Booklet for a CompaCt DisCAustralian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. ISBN 9781922059468.
- "Clapsticks". University of Melbourne. 21 June 2017.
- "1788 - Meet Waruwi: Clapping sticks". My Place. Australian Broadcasting Corporation/. 24 December 1999.