Thursday, September 22, 2016

The Balafon

The Balafon is an instrument found in West Africa, found mainly in Guinea. It is categorized as an ideophone, simply meaning it has tonal bars laid across a frame and is struck with mallets. it is believed to be the ancestor of many instruments around the world, including the xylophone, glockenspiel, vibraphone, and marimba. These are both percussive and melodic instruments. The balafon contains 17-21 rectangular slats typically made from bene wood. The slats are carefully dried over a low flame to achieve resonance. The ends of each slat are burned black with an iron to seal them. The instrument builder tunes each slat by shaving the underbelly. They are arranged from low to high (large to small). Two rows of calabashes (a type of gourd) provide natural amplifiers for the balafon. These calabashes are fixed below the slats, also in arrays from large to small. 
Here is a video of Paul Nas constructing a balafon.


This is a tutorial on how to play the balafon. The narrator explains how the sound is produced and plays a fun melody.


Dancing is an extremely important part of African culture. Here we see a dance party mainly driven by the music of the balafon. In this video, instead of being held on the shoulders and strapped in the front of the players' bodies, the balafon is horizontal. I think this might make the instrument less portable, but easier to play for longer periods of time.


The person taking this video uploaded it sideways, but this is a fun video of a trio of balafons. It is interesting to hear the sounds of the different balafons-they sound similar, but there are definite distinctions between the sounds. I believe this is a result of the different amplifiers underneath the wooden boards.


This last video is of Bakaly Camara, a professional balafon player from Guinea. Again, the balafon is strapped to him, but he plays with such ease!


Resources: 
http://www.coraconnection.com/pages/balaphone.html
http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/edu/ViewLoitDa.do;jsessionid=86598DB1D991F558B7EC46547A99D24D?method=preview&lang=EN&id=8884
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6 comments:

  1. UnknownSeptember 25, 2016 at 3:09 PM

    I really enjoyed the video on how to play the balafon and how you make one. It's incredible to see the craftsmanship in playing the balafon and also making one. It gives me a whole new found respect on what people will do to playing and enjoy music.

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  2. esterhazySeptember 28, 2016 at 7:03 PM

    Thanks for the information on how the instrument is built, that was really interesting.

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  3. UnknownOctober 5, 2016 at 12:56 PM

    The balafon has a really interesting sound and I really enjoyed the information that you presented about how the instrument was built and played.

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  4. Michaela YearyDecember 10, 2016 at 6:45 PM

    I could not imagine trying to dance and play this instrument at the same time. I would lose track. It amazes me how talented people are.:)

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  5. UnknownDecember 11, 2016 at 3:28 PM

    Watching the video on building a balafon makes me want to go chop a tree down and make one myself. I love the similarities of this and most keyboard percussion instruments especially the marimba.

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  6. UnknownDecember 16, 2016 at 6:54 AM

    The first video really does make me want to build my own. Ive always wanted to build my own (Or at least own my own) marimba or xylophone. The wooden keyed percussion instrument is just such a versatile instrument.

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