| |
|
So, I'm taking this class on so-called World Music. As other-izing as the subject is, I'm getting exposed to some music I've never heard before, and learning new things about music I know. A potential final project is to build an instrument from a not classical Western tradition (ie, yes to bhodrans, no to a replica Fender Rhodes). My current idea (and I've gone through a few so far) is to build a mbira (thumb piano, kalimba) more useful for my live performances than the usual cigarbox size would be. For those of you who don't know the thumb piano, it is a wonderfully delicate African (mbira is, I think the Zimbabwean name for it) percussion instrument, generally made of metal tines (played with the thumb) fastened side-by-side by a bridge to a piece of wood, usually arranged with a slight fan-pattern. The tines are plucked with the thumbs, usually playing ostinato phrases, which in ensembles sound gorgeously intricate. I think that mbira tuning is something that is generally done with a metal file. Most mbiras I've played have been built on a box of some sort, to give them a bit more amplification, but I think that the traditional model is generally built on a flat soundboard, which is held inside of a large gourd for performance.
Well, I want to build one with three or four banks of tines, giving access to a broader tonal palette. I also want it to be louder. I was thinking of building something that would end up looking like a very narrow footstool, enclosed on all sides by masonite panels, aside from a soundhole near the base. The top has to be pretty narrow, so as to give easy acces for the thumbs. I was also toying with the idea of suspending sympathetic tines on the inside of the body, theoretically to be agitated by the playing of their harmonic cousins on the soundboard.
My biggest questions are: what is the best way to communicate the vibration of the tines to the resonant cavity underneath? Would a bridge on a sufficiently rigid, but sonorous soundboard(like a violin, right?) transmit better than a big ole soundhole like an acoustic guitar? Marimbas and vibes have slats over tuned resonators, but the slats are not fixed in the way an mbira's are. Obviously, I know zilch about the science of acoustics. This is even more apparent in my pathetic cry for wisdom about my "sympathetic tines." Is the damned thing going to be loud enough to agitate them?
Anbody know anything about the way these things are made, or have an idea about how they should be? What kind of metal to use? Bridge damped or screwed straight in to the soundboard?
Got any stories to share? I'm interested in hearing about the process of building a musical instrument. The only thing i've tried is a cuica made from a coffee can and a chopstick, so any help is appreciated. |
|
|
