# West African timelines

In Ewe music from Ghana and Togo, and in many other West African traditions, a bell plays a repeating pattern called a timeline. A common one has seven strokes spread over twelve pulses. Everyone in the ensemble listens to it to stay together, while the drums play patterns of three and two against each other around it. Through the Atlantic slave trade these patterns travelled to the Americas, and you can hear them in Cuban and Brazilian music today.

Connects to:
- [Rhythm and polyrhythm](https://mapideas.org/i/mu_rhythm)

Sources:
- [Wikipedia: Euclidean rhythm](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euclidean_rhythm)
- [What is music? Module 8, spreading beats as evenly as possible](https://sofiagallego.com/what-is-music/)

Source: https://mapideas.org/i/mu_africa · open on the map: https://mapideas.org/#mu_africa