A West African Chordophone:  The kora

A non-Western chordophone is the kora, a traditional West African instrument. Musicians use a large, dried out gourd (calabash) to create the body of the kora. An animal skin is stretched across the body to create a soundboard, and twenty-one strings are stretched from the body to the end of a long piece of hardwood. Then, a musician sits on the floor and plucks the strings of the kora to create sound.

Instruments like the kora are great examples of musicians using “found” materials to create music.

In the USA, technology is available to create instruments using machines, using a variety of materials.  You can easily go to a music store and purchase a trumpet or saxophone.  

In West Africa, rural communities use plants and items around them to create instruments.  Resources like animal skin and horns, calabash, and hardwood are used to make drums, trumpets, shakers, and string instruments like the kora.

 

Photo(s) Attribution
Description: Ballake Sissoko Playing the Kora, Axatse
Source: Wikimedia Commons