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Mbira The mbira is also known as the thumb piano, because one's thumbs are used to pluck (or more accurately depress and release) the metal strips (tongues or lamellas) that sound particular notes. It is common for two mbiras to play together where one covers the melodic accompaniment of the singer while the other plays the bass line (or bourdon). Mbira music lends itself to rhythmic and melodic diversity, and entails a great deal of improvisation, qualities common to African traditional music. www.music.vt.edu /musicdictionary/textm/Mbira.html   (1188 words)

mbira music: Afropop Style -- Zimbabwe, Southern Africa There are several types of mbira, but the most popular is called mbira dzavadzimu, meaning literally "mbira of the ancestor spirits," a reference to the instrument's traditional use and function in religious ceremonies. Zimbabwe's mbiras--such as mbira dzavadzimu, njari, matepe and the smaller karimba--are part of a larger family of African lamellophones that includes the Congolese likembe and sanza, the Tanzanian ilimba, the kalimba and a variety of other variants. Because mbira players are considered to be hearing the sound of the mbira continuously, when the kushaura musician begins to play there is no fixed point in the cycle to be considered as the "beginning." The player is merely joining in with the music already being heard. www.afropop.org /explore/style_info/ID/60/mbiram   (1527 words)

Mbira The traditional mbira repertoire consists of hundreds of pieces transmitted from generation to generation, and pieces popular today are known to have been played over 700 years ago. Mbira is used to chase away harmful spirits and to cure illnesses with or without a n'anga (traditional diviner/herbalist). Mbira is included in celebrations of all kinds, including weddings, installation of new chiefs, and death ceremonies, including the guva ceremony, approximately one year after a person's physical death, in which mbira is used to welcome that individual's spirit back to the community.. www.ashokaedu.net /mbira/index.htm   (1250 words)

Mbira.org - Shona mbira music of Zimbabwe MBIRA is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to educate the public regarding traditional Shona music of Zimbabwe, including mbira music, and to develop a library of recordings to preserve that music. One of the primary objectives of MBIRA is to ensure that Shona music activities outside Zimbabwe benefit Zimbabwean musicians and instrument makers. Zimbabwe's mbira shown below is the primary traditional instrument of the Zezuru tribes of the Shona people, and has been played for over 1,000 years at religious rituals, royal courts, and social occasions. www.mbira.org   (289 words)

Ensembles - Mbira Ensemble Native to the Shona culture of Zimbabwe, the mbira is an instrument with 22 to 24 metal keys (lamellae) fixed to a wooden soundboard, which is then wedged to a gourd resonator, used to amplify its resonance. Along with the vibrations of the bottle caps, the keys of the mbira tend to produce very prominent overtones resulting in various layers of rhythmic accents and inherent melodies. Mbira players often report that the mbira sounds like more than one instrument being played at once, or that implicit sounds emerge on close listening to the mbira. www.esm.rochester.edu /ensembles/mbira.php   (204 words)

Rock Paper Scissors - Stella Chiweshe, Talking Mbira (Piranha) - All hail Zimbabwe's mbira queen Known as the queen of mbira — Zimbabwean instrument consisting of metal keys mounted on a hardwood soundboard and placed inside a gourd resonator — Chiweshe also is called “ambuya Chinyakare” (“grandmother of traditional music”) in her native country. She was also one of the first musicians to combine the mbira and the marimba, and one of the few women in here country to lead her own band. She also brought together the notes of the mbira and marimba, a sound that she says was stuck in her head long before she actually heard it. www.rockpaperscissors.biz /index.cfm/fuseaction/current.articles_detail/project_id/50/article_id/1353.cfm   (780 words)

Yeshe Mbira African Music World Music   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-11) Mbira is required to bring rain during drought, stop rain during floods, and bring clouds when crops are burned by the sun. Mbira is included in celebrations of all kinds, including weddings, installation of new chiefs, and, more recently, government events such as independence day and international conferences. Mbira is also required at death ceremonies, and is played for a week following a chief's death before the community is informed of his passing. www.yeshemusic.com /mbira.htm   (1224 words)

2002 Zimbabwean Music Festival: Mbira Workshops Mbira workshops are for mbira dzavadzimu unless specified. We will also discuss the history of mbira and how it models the Shona way of life: as all social relationships are bonded and regulated through music, a personal relationship is created between player and mbira. Prerequisite: Participants must have played mbira for at least 5 years and be familiar and comfortable with playing kutsinhira parts whose bass notes emphasize the off-beat of the hosho pattern. www.zimfest.org /2002/mbira.html   (715 words)

Thumb Pianos - Lucinda Ellison Musical Instruments The Mbira, or Thumb Piano, also known as Sansa or Likembe, is one of the most ancient and popular instruments found throughout Africa. Recently this term "mbira" has come to replace "thumb piano" as the more traditional-sounding generic term for the many styles of thumb pianos and plucked idiophones of the world. For centuries the mbira has been played by master virtuosos and little kids alike, either for ceremonies, music ensembles, or to simply pass the time on a long walk. www.harmonicjourney.com /lucindathumppianos.php   (713 words)

Mushawaparara Mbira Group The Dovapasi or Nhovapasi Mbira is primarily a punctuation Mbira. In the absence of the Hosho, the Mbira is naked. Mbira vocals are basically freestyle, and as such it is not uncommon to see that one song could carry two, three, or more styles of vocals being blended together. mushawaparara.netfirms.com   (6675 words)

Coleman Collection   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-11) Mbira is a general term for a family of instruments called lamellophones. The mbiras are constructed of specially shaped metal keys (size and shape dependent on pitch) which are usually mounted onto a wooden soundboard, and are placed inside a calabash gourd which is used as a resonator. Some believe that the mbira is a derivative of the xylophone, almost a portable xylophone due to its similar sound and the similar patterns they play. www.uoguelph.ca /music/coleman/thumb_organ.html   (235 words)

N. Scott Robinson-World Music and Percussion, Frame Drums, Riq, Tambourines Mbira are made from an assortment of materials, such as wood, metal gas and insecticide cans, gourds and coconut shells, and in a great variety of sizes, shapes and types, and they exist as acoustic or electric instruments. A Western innovation is the purely electric mbira (the "e.mbira"), made by Lucinda Ellison (and also those made by David Bellinger), which is constructed in a similar fashion to the solid-body electric guitar, with internal pickups under the bridge and a jack to plug into an amplifier. The mbira can be played melodically by plucking out a melody on the keys, or in a rhythmic fashion by plucking a pattern on one side of the keyboard while a pattern that fills in between the first is plucked on the other side. www.nscottrobinson.com /mbira.php   (4333 words)

Mbira.org: The mbira instrument The mbira of the Zezuru group of the Shona people of Zimbabwe consists of 22 to 28 metal keys mounted on a gwariva (hardwood soundboard) made from the mubvamaropa tree (Pterocarpus angolensis). The mbira is usually placed inside a large calabash resonator (deze) to amplify it. Either metal beads strung on a wire, or bottle tops or shells mounted on a metal plate, are placed on the lower portion of the mbira soundboard to add a buzz which varies from a soft hiss to a tambourine-like sound. www.mbira.org /instrument.html   (348 words)

DAILY BRUIN ONLINE - Ensemble celebrates heritage   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-11) The mbira is a traditional Zimbabwe instrument fashioned from a flat soft wood to make a sound board on which metal keys attach. The mbira is then fitted into a resonator made from a hollowed out gourd, on which fastened bottle tops creates a buzzing sound that compliments and enhances the tinkering of the mbira keys. The music of mbira, as played by this accomplished ensemble was sweet, full of complexity and joy, and rich with the stuff of real life. www.dailybruin.ucla.edu /db/issues/99/11.09/ae.mbira.html   (782 words)

Mbira - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia In Shona music, the mbira dzavadzimu (or mbira of the ancestors) is a musical instrument that has been used by the Shona people of Zimbabwe for thousands of years, going all the way back to one of the Mhondoro or Great Spirit Mediums, Chaminuka. The mbira dzavadzimu is constructed from 22 to 28 strips of cold or hot forged metal of varying lengths affixed to a hardwood gwariva or soundboard. The Mbira Dzavadzimu is very significant in Shona religion and culture, the national instrument of Zimbabwe, and is considered sacred. en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Mbira_(rewrite)   (2024 words)

Rock Paper Scissors - Stella Chiweshe, Talking Mbira (Piranha) - Press Release Her Majesty, the Queen of Mbira Music from Zimbabwe—as Stella Rambisai Chiweshe is often called—is the first woman Mbira player to gain prestige in Mbira music, the backbone of Zimbabwean music, which has been dominated by men. Chiweshe—whose CD, Talking Mbira, was released by Piranha (purchase CD from distributor, Harmonia Mundi USA)—is one of the few musicians in Zimbabwe and Southern Africa, who for more than 35 years has been a traditional Mbira musician. Before independence Mbira instruments had to be kept hidden, because the colonial government had banned the instrument fearing its magical powers. www.rockpaperscissors.biz /index.cfm/fuseaction/current.press_release/project_id/50.cfm   (371 words)

University of Virginia News Story The mbira is an ancient and enchanting African instrument consisting of reed or metal keys mounted on a bridge on a hardwood soundboard, and usually encompassed by a half-gourd resonator. Along with sung poetry and percussion, mbira music has long been an integral part of Shona culture; musicians play the mbira at traditional religious ceremonies in which villagers consult with and make offerings to their ancestors. This group features three different types of mbiras, their accompanying styles of song and dance, as well as drums, hosho (ground rattles), musical bows, and antelope trumpets. www.virginia.edu /topnews/releases/mbira-oct-7-1999.html   (315 words)

Mbira   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-11) Mbira is the primary traditional instrument of the Zezuru tribes Mbiras are tuned in a non-Western scale similiar to a western The Karimba is similar to the mbira from Zimbabwe. hughtraceykalimba.com /Mbira.html   (1066 words)

Zimbabwe: Shona Mbira Music The mbira, constructed by attaching a series of tuned metal strips to a wooden platform, is best known in Western circles as the thumb piano. In the Shona tradition of Zimbabwe, mbira musicians represent the wise men of the culture; their performance often serves as a catalyst for spiritual awakening. While playing the mbira in a conventional groups can be demanding with the constant need for counterpoint, it's truly a virtuoso feat in the solo setting. www.allaboutjazz.com /php/article.php?id=44   (2008 words)

Ray's Mbira Page   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-11) Sometimes the mbira is put inside a big gourd, called a "deze" which amplifies the sound considerably. The mbira is often used for sacred spirit ceremonies, but can also be played for the enjoyment of the music itself. He is a truly great mbira maker and musician, and his meticulous craftsmanship is evident in his instruments, and recordings I have heard of him playing. mars.superlink.net /~rayash/mbira.htm   (649 words)

MBIRA   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-11) This letter serves to update you on the 1999 activities and accomplishments of MBIRA, a non-profit organization whose purpose is to educate the public regarding traditional music of Zimbabwe, including mbira music, and to develop a library of recordings to preserve that music. MBIRA was involved in the production (not financing) of two new CDs: "Trance 3" (Ellipsis Arts) which includes a solo field recording of Forward Kwenda from the MBIRA Recordings Library, and "Mbira: Healing Music of Zimbabwe" (Relaxation Co.) with solo playing by Erica Azim. MBIRA intends to record as many different musicians as possible, both to document the Shona mbira tradition thoroughly, and to provide financial support to as many musicians as possible. www.etsu.edu /orbis/feature/mbira.htm   (955 words)

Mbira   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-11) This mbira (or thumb piano) is from Zimbabwe. The tines are often hammered from bicycle spokes or chair springs and the whole instrument is sewn together with wire. To play the mbira, hold it in both hands with the metal tines pointing towards you and pluck them with your thumbs. www.mms.eq.edu.au /musical-instruments/mbira.htm   (111 words)

Zimbabwe Music Guide From mbiras to marimbas, the traditional music of the Shona people of Northern and Central Zimbabwe encorporates a number of percussive instruments to create a beautiful melodic and rhythmic effect. The mbira is played inside a zeze, a hollowed gourd which acts as a resonator. Despite having its roots in Western Mozambique, the mbira nyunga nyunga is similar to the mbira dzavadzimu. www.embargo.ca /zim/info/p1-inst.htm   (373 words)

The Kutandara Center - Colorado's Zimbabwean Music Community for Marimba and Mbira He began playing mbira at the age of five and is self-taught. Mbira pleases both the living and the dead." In 1991 Musekiwa was a key member of the band Panjea, founded by Chris Berry. He has been an avid student and player of mbira dzavadzimu from the time he was eight, when he `pinched' his cousin's instrument for surreptitious study. www.kutandara.com /learn/visitingartist.htm   (1222 words)

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