What is balafon made from?
The Balafon is made using various types of wood. Bene wood and bamboo are some of the most popular materials, as they are known to be highly durable and flexible. The wood is shaved down to the right key size and then dried over a slow burning fire.
What is the role of the balafon?
The Balafon: instrument of kings It was once an instrument only played for kings. It was fixed into the ground over holes to help the sound reverberate. It is made portable now through the use of gourds (pictured) which serve as the resonators. Every king had to have a Griot as his advisor.
What is the most distinct feature of balafon?
The balafon usually has 17–21 keys, tuned to a tetratonic, pentatonic or heptatonic scale, depending on the culture of the musician. The balafon is generally capable of producing 18 to 21 notes, though some are built to produce many fewer notes (16, 12, 8 or even 6 and 7).
What type of music instrument is a balafon?
African percussion instrument
The balafon is a tuned West African percussion instrument. It is the ancestor of the marimba, xylophone and vibraphone, and has been known of in the Malian Empire since the 12th century.
What is the classification of balafon?
Object Description
| Instrument caption | balanji balafon bala |
|---|---|
| Country/Area | Sierra Leone |
| Culture Area | Mandinka |
| Knight-Revision Classification number | Y22.122 #18 |
| Short descriptive term | frame xylophone |
Where does the balafon come from?
The African balafon is the traditional xylophone of the Mande people in West Africa. The original name of the percussion instrument is bala, while the term “balafon” actually means “playing the bala instrument”. Every Mande balafon that exists today originates from one particular instrument, the Sosso Bala.
What are the types of idiophone?
The eight basic types are concussion, friction, percussion, plucked, scraped, shaken, stamped, and stamping. In many cases, as in the gong, the vibrating material itself forms the instrument’s body. Other examples include xylophones and rattles.
What instruments are in idiophone?
This includes the instruments that are part of the idiophone classification. Examples of hese instruments include the cymbals, xylophone, marimba, vibraphone, glockenspiel, triangle, tambourine, gong, chimes, castanets and bells. These idiophone instruments of the orchestra are more commonly known as percussions.
What is idiophone membranophone Chordophone and Aerophone?
An idiophone is any musical instrument that creates sound primarily by the vibration of the instrument itself, without the use of air flow (as with aerophones), strings (chordophones), membranes (membranophones) or electricity (electrophones).
What are types of chordophones?
chordophone, any of a class of musical instruments in which a stretched, vibrating string produces the initial sound. The five basic types are bows, harps, lutes, lyres, and zithers. The name chordophone replaces the term stringed instrument when a precise, acoustically based designation is required.
What are chordophones examples?
Examples include dulcimers, harpsichords, and pianos. With harps, the strings are stretched at an angle between the resonator and the neck, which is attached to the resonator. Irish harps and orchestral harps are two examples of this type of chordophone.
What are the instruments in chordophone?
What is a balafon instrument?
The balafon ( [‘bæləfɔ̃], [bɑlɑ’fɔ̃]) is a gourd -resonated xylophone, a type of struck idiophone. It is closely associated with the neighbouring Mandé, Senoufo and Gur peoples of West Africa, particularly the Guinean branch of the Mandinka ethnic group, but is now found across West Africa from Guinea to Mali.
How are Balafon keys made?
Construction. Balafon keys are traditionally made from béné wood, dried slowly over a low flame, and then tuned by shaving off bits of wood from the underside of the keys. Wood is taken off the middle to flatten the key or the end to sharpen it.
How many notes can a balafon produce?
The balafon is generally capable of producing 18 to 21 notes, though some are built to produce many fewer notes (16, 12, 8 or even 6 and 7). Balafon keys are traditionally made from béné wood, dried slowly over a low flame, and then tuned by shaving off bits of wood from the underside of the keys.
Where is balafon played in Africa?
Balafon is a Manding name, but variations exist across West Africa, including the balangi in Sierra Leone and the gyil of the Dagara, Lobi and Gurunsi from Ghana, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast. Similar instruments are played in parts of Central Africa, with the ancient Kingdom of Kongo denoting the instrument as palaku.