What is the instrument used to play mbira?
What is the instrument used to play mbira?
Mbira
| Other instrument | |
|---|---|
| Other names | finger harp, gourd piano, ikembe, kalimba, kilembe, likembe, likimba, marimbula, mbla, sansa, sansu, sanza, thumb piano, timbrh, zanzu |
| Classification | Lamellophone, Plucked Idiophone |
| Hornbostel–Sachs classification | 122.1 (Plucked idiophone) |
| Timbre | clear, percussive, chimelike |
What is the role of the mbira in ensemble playing?
The most important function of mbira is as a “telephone to the spirits”, used to contact both deceased ancestors and even more ancient tribal guardians, at all-night bira (pl. In previous centuries, court musicians played mbira for Shona kings and their diviners.
How many keys does mbira have?
Played by Shona-speaking communities in Zimbabwe, the mbira is an instrument with 22 to 28 metal keys (lamellae) fixed to a wooden soundboard, which is then placed in a gourd resonator, used to amplify its resonance.
What sound does a mbira made?
The mbira is held in both hands, with the thumbs creating the music by striking the tines. The action looks a lot like the hands-and-thumbs motion of texting on a cell phone. The mbira’s unique tone is described as inharmonic—a dissonance that occurs when the motion of one tine creates a vibration in an adjacent tine.
Is a mbira a string instrument?
mbira, also called mbila sansa, kilembe, likembe, timbrh, or thumb piano, plucked idiophone (instrument whose sounding parts are resonant solids belonging to the body of the instrument itself)—or more specifically, a lamellaphone—that is unique to Africa and widely distributed throughout the continent.
Is mbira a percussion instrument?
The thumb piano, or mbira – a name derived from Shona language of Zimbabwe – is uniquely African percussion instrument. Mbira consists of a row of metal strips, used as key, attached to an open-ended wooden gourd or hollow resonator.
How is the mbira instrument made?
The mbira is made of 22 to 28 metal keys attached to a hardwood soundboard called the gwariva, usually placed inside a large gourd to amplify the sound. The metal keys are plucked with both thumbs and the forefinger of the right hand. Traditionally, the keys were made from an iron ore smelted from rocks.
Is the mbira a percussion instrument?
What is the classification of the mbira?
The mbira (pronounced UM-beer-ra , IPA (ə)mˈbɪərə) is an African musical instrument consisting of a wooden board (often fitted with a resonator) with attached staggered metal tines, played by holding the instrument in the hands and plucking the tines with the thumbs. The mbira is usually classified as part of the lamellaphone family…
What are the characteristics of mbira music?
Mbira music, like much of the sub-Saharan African music traditions is based on cross-rhythm. An example from the kutsinhira part of the traditional mbira dzavadzimu piece “Nhema Musasa” is given by David Peñalosa, who observes that the left hand plays the ostinato “bass line,” while the right hand plays the upper melody.
How do you play the mbira?
Photos of mbira makers constructing instruments. The mbira is played with the two thumbs stroking down and the right forefinger stroking up. Learn more about playing technique.
What is a mbira key and how does it work?
A mbira key produces a rich complex of overtones that varies from one instrument to another depending on its maker’s intentions and accidents of fabrication, such that some instruments simply sound better when some notes of a familiar tuning are pushed.
