Until a few decades ago, the musical picture in many parts of Africa was primarily that of traditions of linguistic groups as cultural units. So there was as now Akan music, Adangme music, Yoruba music, Kalahari music, etc., each one practised by communities sharing common beliefs, common values and common ideals. Because of the way in which this music was organized and practised in the past, striking variations in levels of attainment, in the emphasis on different instrumental resources, and more particularly in the choice of singing styles have been inevitable.

Thus when we compare the singing styles of the Akan and the Anlo-Ewe of Ghana, we find that the dominant features of Akan singing style are the use of a heptatonic scale and polyphony based on the third as a consonant interval. Men and women rarely sing in octave parallels. In Ewe singing, on the other hand, the predominant features are singing in unison or in parallel octaves where men and women sing together and the use of sporadic fourths'as consonant intervals. Both hemitonic and anhemitonic pentatonic forms are used.