Preliminary modal analysis of the Alo Gong

The Alo is a percussion instrument found predominantly in the eastern parts of Nigeria with the Igbo’s and plays an important role in the Igbo musical culture and settings. Being a bass gong with tones of three pitches, the Alo produces a very distinct sound and a sustained reverberation rendering a background beat to music of an African instrument ensemble or a mixed ensemble. This paper discusses the acoustical output characteristics of this instrument. The spectral characteristics of the sustained reverberation is presented, along with the dynamics responses of the structure to an excitation. These analyses not only provide an understanding of the distinct sound of the Alo instrument but may also be used by African instrument acoustician to re-model, or create more instruments with resonance frequencies.