Jing Ping is a kind of folk music originated on the slave plantations of Dominica

Dominica

Dominica , officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island nation in the Lesser Antilles region of the Caribbean Sea, south-southeast of Guadeloupe and northwest of Martinique. Its size is and the highest point in the country is Morne Diablotins, which has an elevation of . The Commonwealth...

, also known colloquially as an accordion band. In Dominican folk music, jing ping bands accompany a circle dance

Circle dance

"Circle dance" is the most common name for a style of traditional dance usually done in a circle without partners to musical accompaniment.-Description:...

 called the flirtation, as well as the Dominican quadrille

Quadrille

Quadrille is a historic dance performed by four couples in a square formation, a precursor to traditional square dancing. It is also a style of music...

.

Characteristics

The Dominican quadrille generally has four figures, the pastouwèl, lapoul, lété and latrinitez. Some regions of Dominica, such as Petite Savanne

Petite Savanne

Petite Savanne is a village on the southeast side of Dominica. It has a population of 781, and has some of Dominica's steepest terrain....

, are home to local variants such as the caristo. Many quadrilles are found across Dominica under a wide variety of names. In addition to the standard quadrille, the lancer

Les Lanciers

Les Lanciers is a Square, or a Quadrille, which is the pan-European term for a set dance performed by four couples. It is a composite dance made up of five figures or tours, each performed four times so that all couples will dance the lead part. We find Les Lanciers or The Lancers in many variants...

 is also an important Dominican dance.

Instrumentation

Accompaniment for the quadrille is provided by a four instrument ensemble called a jing ping band. Jing ping bands are made up of a boumboum (boom pipe), syak or gwaj (scraper-rattle

Rattle (percussion)

A rattle is a percussion instrument. It consists of a hollow body filled with small uniform solid objects, like sand or nuts. Rhythmical shaking of this instrument produces repetitive, rather dry timbre noises. In some kinds of music, a rattle assumes the role of the metronome, as an alternative to...

), tambal or tanbou (tambourine

Tambourine

The tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all....

) and accordion

Accordion

The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....

. The double bass

Double bass

The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

 and banjo

Banjo

In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...

 are also sometimes used. Bamboo flutes led the jing ping ensembles before the 1940s, when accordions were introduced. The Dominican flute tradition declined as a result, despite their additional use in serenade

Serenade

In music, a serenade is a musical composition, and/or performance, in someone's honor. Serenades are typically calm, light music.The word Serenade is derived from the Italian word sereno, which means calm....

s, until being revived after the National Independence Competitions.

Jing ping moderne

Jing ping moderne is a modernized version of Jing ping, which utilizes modern instruments such as
Drum set, modern Synthesizer

Synthesizer

A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...

, and Electric bass

Electric Bass

Electric bass can mean:*Electric upright bass, the electric version of a double bass*Electric bass guitar*Bass synthesizer*Big Mouth Billy Bass, a battery-powered singing fish...

.

Bouyon

Bouyon legends WCK played an important role in the modernization of Jing ping, giving credibility to a style that was seen as backward and unsophisticated. The WCK Band

Windward Caribbean Kulture

The WCK Band was formed in 1988 in Dominica. The band played a blend of 'cadence-lypso' and Dominican 'Jing ping', which would later be labelled bouyon, a genre which they are credited with creating.-Discography:...

 (Pioneers of bouyon music

Bouyon music

Bouyon is a form of popular music of Dominica which became popular in the late 1980s. The term Bouyon means something akin to "gumbo soup" in the local creole of Dominica...

) started fusing the traditional jing ping with modern instruments of cadence-lypso

Cadence-lypso

Cadence-lypso, popularized as simply Cadence is a cultural music of Dominica based in Guadeloupe in the early 1970s. Cadence-lypso is a fusion of Dominican and Caribbean/Latin rhythms and has totally revolutionized the music scence in its genre, and it has now become the main dance Music of...

 music. While the Cadence-Lypso sound is based on the use of acoustic drums, an aggressive up-tempo guitar beat and strong social commentary in the native Creole

Creole

- Languages :A Creole language is a stable, full-fledged language that originated from a pidgin or combination of other languages.Creole languages subgroups may include:* Arabic-based creole languages* Dutch-based creole languages...

language, this new music created by WCK focused more on the use of technology with a strong emphasis on keyboard rhythmic patterns.