How to Play the Balafon | African Drums

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Watch more How to Play African Drums videos: howcast.com/videos/513030-How-to-Play-the-Balaf…



I want to talk to you about balafon. The balafon is made by wood, it's not metal, called khadi, that the Susu people call khadi, and Malinke people call beng.

So we made this with wood, and on the bottom we have the gourds, like calabash. It's a fruit, it comes from the fruit family, pumpkin family. These calabash make the balafon loud, like amplification.

Since we get this instrument was not technology like electricity in Africa at that time, we used those to make sound vibration louder, like, you know, amplification.

And you have bamboo frame. This is a bamboo frame. We make those together to make balafon. But it's really name called bala, B-A-L-A.

So now to stake this rubber tree, we make stake, to play balafon for that. So, I'm going to show you a little demonstration.

That's overview to play balafon.