Mbira ( ) are a family of
musical instrument
A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who pl ...
s, traditional to the
Shona people of
Zimbabwe. They consist of a wooden board (often fitted with a resonator) with attached staggered metal
tines, played by holding the instrument in the hands and plucking the tines with the thumbs (at minimum), the right
forefinger (most mbira), and sometimes the left
forefinger.
Musicologists
Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some ...
classify it as a
lamellaphone, part of the plucked
idiophone family of musical instruments. In Eastern and Southern Africa, there are many kinds of mbira, often accompanied by the
hosho, a percussion instrument. It is often an important instrument played at religious ceremonies, weddings, and other social gatherings. The "Art of crafting and playing Mbira/Sansi, the finger-plucking traditional musical instrument in Malawi and Zimbabwe" was added to the
UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2020.
A modern interpretation of the instrument, the kalimba, was commercially produced and exported by
ethnomusicologist
Ethnomusicology is the study of music from the cultural and social aspects of the people who make it. It encompasses distinct theoretical and methodical approaches that emphasize cultural, social, material, cognitive, biological, and other dim ...
Hugh Tracey in the late 1950s, popularising similar instruments outside of Africa. Tracey's design was modeled after the
mbira nyunga nyunga and named '
'Kalimba'
' after an ancient predecessor of the mbira family of instruments. The kalimba is basically a westernized younger version of mbira. It was popularized in the 1960s and early 1970s largely due to the successes of such musicians as
Maurice White
Maurice White (December 19, 1941 – February 4, 2016) was an American singer, musician, songwriter, and record producer. He was best known as the founder, leader, main songwriter, and producer of the band Earth, Wind & Fire, and served as the ...
of the band
Earth, Wind and Fire and
Thomas Mapfumo in the 1970s.
These musicians included mbira on stage accompanying modern rock instruments such as electric guitar and bass, drum kit, and horns.
Their arrangements included numerous songs directly drawn from traditional mbira repertoire. Other notable influencers bringing mbira music out of Africa are:
Dumisani Maraire, who brought
marimba and karimba music to the American
Pacific Northwest;
Ephat Mujuru, who was one of the pioneer teachers of mbira dzavadzimu in the
United States; and the writings and recordings of
Zimbabwean musicians made by
Paul Berliner. Claire Jones, a student of Dumisani Maraire in the 1970s, has been playing and teaching mbira for more than 40 years. She is also a Festival Coordinator for Zimfest, a Zimbabwean Music Festival held annually in North America that offers many opportunities to learn and listen to mbira.
Joseph H. Howard and
Babatunde Olatunji have both suggested that mbira (and other metal lamellaphones) are thoroughly African, being found only in areas populated by Africans or their descendants.
Similar instruments were reported to be used in Okpuje, Nsukka area of the south eastern part of Nigeria in the early 1900s.
History
Various kinds of plucked idiophones and lamellaphones have existed in Africa for thousands of years. The tines were originally made of bamboo but over the years metal keys have been developed. These types of instrument appear to have been invented twice in Africa: a wood or bamboo-tined instrument appeared on the west coast of Africa about 3,000 years ago, and metal-tined lamellophones appeared in the
Zambezi River valley around 1,300 years ago. Metal-tined instruments traveled all across the continent, becoming popular among the Shona of Zimbabwe (from which the word mbira comes) and other indigenous groups in Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The mbira was differentiated in its physical form and social uses as it spread. Kalimba-like instruments came to exist from the northern reaches of North Africa to the southern extent of the
Kalahari Desert, and from the east coast to the west coast, though many or most groups of people in Africa did not possess mbiras. There were thousands of different tunings, different note layouts, and different instrument designs, but there is a hypothetical tuning and note layout of the original metal-tined instrument from 1,300 years ago, referred to as the 'kalimba core'.
In the mid 1950s mbira instruments were the basis for the development of the ''kalimba'', a westernized version designed and marketed by the ethnomusicologist Hugh Tracey, leading to a great expansion of its distribution outside Africa.
Acoustics
Lamellophones are instruments which have little tines, or "lamellae", which are played by plucking. Unlike stringed instruments or air-column instruments like flutes, the
overtones of a plucked lamella are
inharmonic, giving the mbira a characteristic sound. The inharmonic overtones are strongest in the
attack
Attack may refer to:
Warfare and combat
* Offensive (military)
* Charge (warfare)
* Attack (fencing)
* Strike (attack)
* Attack (computing)
* Attack aircraft
Books and publishing
* ''The Attack'' (novel), a book
* '' Attack No. 1'', comic an ...
and die out rather quickly, leaving an almost pure tone. When a tine is plucked, the adjacent tines also create secondary vibrations that increase the harmonic complexity of an individual note.
Rhythm
Mbira music, like much of the
sub-Saharan African music traditions is based on
cross-rhythm. An example from the kutsinhira part of the traditional mbira dzavadzimu piece "Nhema Musasa" is given by David Peñalosa, who observes that the left hand plays the
ostinato
In music, an ostinato (; derived from Italian word for ''stubborn'', compare English ''obstinate'') is a motif or phrase that persistently repeats in the same musical voice, frequently in the same pitch. Well-known ostinato-based pieces include ...
"bass line," while the right hand plays the upper melody. The composite melody is an embellishment of the 3:2 cross-rhythm (also known as a
hemiola).
Tuning

It is common on African mbira and other lamellophones to have the lowest notes in the center with higher notes to the far left and the far right—this is an ergonomic nicety, in that the thumb can pivot such that all the tines are easy to reach. However, traditional African tunings use notes that do not lie on the grid of the
Western tempered scale, and traditional mbira note layouts are often idiosyncratic, sometimes with adjacent tines making part of a scale, but then an odd note thrown in that defies the pattern.
Historically, mbira tunings have not mapped exactly onto Western scales; it is not unusual for a seven-note sequence on a mbira to be "
stretched
Stretching is a form of physical exercise in which a specific muscle or tendon (or muscle group) is deliberately flexed or stretched in order to improve the muscle's felt elasticity and achieve comfortable muscle tone. The result is a feeling ...
" over a greater range of frequencies than a Western octave and for the intervals between notes to be different from those in a Western scale. Tunings have often been idiosyncratic with variations over time and from one player to another. A mbira key produces a rich complex of overtones that varies from one instrument to another depending on its maker's intentions and accidents of fabrication, such that some instruments simply sound better when some notes of a familiar tuning are pushed. With the increased popularity of the mbira dzavadzimu in North America, Europe, and Japan in recent decades, Zimbabwean mbira makers have tended to tune their instruments more uniformly for export, but much variation is still found among mbira in their homeland.
Tunings vary from family to family referring to relative interval relationships and not to absolute pitches. The most common tuning played throughout Zimbabwe and among non-Zimbabwean mbira players worldwide is Nyamaropa, similar to the western
Mixolydian mode
Mixolydian mode may refer to one of three things: the name applied to one of the ancient Greek ''harmoniai'' or ''tonoi'', based on a particular octave species or scale; one of the medieval church modes; or a modern musical mode or diatonic scal ...
. Names may also vary between different families;
Garikayi Tirikoti has developed a "mbira orchestra" that has seven different tunings, each starting on a different interval of the same seven-note scale, where it is possible to play all instruments in a single performance. The seven tunings that Garikayi uses are: Bangidza, Nyabango, Nhemamusasa, Chakwi, Taireva, Mahororo, and Mavembe (all of which are also names of traditional songs save for Mavembe and Nyabango). The closest to what is commonly named "Nyamaropa" is his "Nhemamusasa" tuning.
Specific tunings
Common names for tunings are:
* Nyamaropa (close to
Mixolydian mode
Mixolydian mode may refer to one of three things: the name applied to one of the ancient Greek ''harmoniai'' or ''tonoi'', based on a particular octave species or scale; one of the medieval church modes; or a modern musical mode or diatonic scal ...
) (considered the oldest and most representative in Shona culture) It emphasizes togetherness through music, creating polyrhythms through having two Mbira players at once, having singing styles accompany an ''Mbira'' such as ''Huro'' (High emotional notes that are at the top of a singer's range) & ''Mahon'era'' (a soft breathy voice at the bottom of the singer's range) or both elements. A single Mbira is considered incomplete for a performance.
* Dambatsoko (close to
Ionian mode), played by the Mujuru family. The name refers to their ancestral burial grounds.
* Dongonda, usually a Nyamaropa tuned mbira with the right side notes the same octave as the left (an octave lower than usual).
* Katsanzaira (close to
Dorian mode), the highest pitch of the traditional mbira tunings. The name means "the gentle rain before the storm hits".
* Mavembe (also: Gandanga) (close to
Phrygian mode
The Phrygian mode (pronounced ) can refer to three different musical modes: the ancient Greek ''tonos'' or ''harmonia,'' sometimes called Phrygian, formed on a particular set of octave species or scales; the Medieval Phrygian mode, and the modern ...
), Sekuru Gora claims to have invented this tuning at a funeral ceremony. The mourners were singing a familiar song with an unfamiliar melody and he went outside the hut and tuned his mbira to match the vocal lines. Other mbira players dispute that he invented it.
* Nemakonde (close to Phrygian mode), same musical relationship as the mavembe, but the nemakonde tuning is a very low pitched version.
* Saungweme (flattened whole tone, approaching seven tone equal temperament).
Variants
Mbira dzavadzimu
In
Shona music, the mbira dzavadzimu (''"voice of the ancestors"'', or ''"mbira of the ancestral spirits''", national instrument of Zimbabwe) is a musical instrument that has been played by the
Shona people of
Zimbabwe for thousands of years. The ''mbira dzavadzimu'' is frequently played at religious ceremonies and social gatherings called ''mapira'' (sing. "''bira''"). The ''mbira dzavadzimu'' can be used to play over one hundred songs, such as ''Kariga mombe''.
A typical ''mbira dzavadzimu'' consists of between 22 and 28 keys constructed from hot- or cold-
forged metal affixed to a hardwood
soundboard (''gwariva'') in three different registers—two on the left, one on the right.
While playing, the
little finger of the right hand is placed through a hole in the bottom right corner of the soundboard, with the little finger entering from the front of sound board, and the
ring finger and
middle finger reaching around the back to stabilize the instrument. This leaves the thumb and index finger of the right hand open to
stroke
A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...
the keys in the right register from above (thumb) and below (index finger). The fingers of the left hand stabilize the left side of the instrument, with most fingers reaching slightly behind the instrument. Both registers on the left side of the instrument are played with the left thumb. Some mbira possess an extra key in the upper left register which is hit from below by the left index finger.
Bottle caps,
shells, or other objects ("''machachara''"
[Williams, B. Michael. (2001) Learning Mbira: A Beginning. Everett, PA: HoneyRock. ]) are often affixed to the soundboard to create a buzzing sound when the instrument is played. In a traditional setting, this sound is considered extremely important, as it is believed to attract
ancestral spirits.
During a public performance, an ''mbira dzavadzimu'' is frequently placed in a ''
deze'' (
calabash resonator) to amplify its sound.
The ''mbira dza vadzimu'' is very significant in
Shona religion and
culture, considered a sacred instrument by the Shona people. It is usually played to facilitate communication with ancestral spirits, bringing the spirit of the dead back on its homestead.
Within the Shona tradition, the mbira may be played with paired performers in which the ''
kushaura'', the caller, leads the performed piece as the ''
kutsinhira'', the responder, "interlocks" a subsequent part.
The ritual is known as the ''Bira.'' During these all-night ceremonies, people call upon the spirits to answer questions. The variations of notes in an ''Mbira'' piece aid the participants in going into trance, which in Shona culture aids the spirits in taking over the participant's body.
Albert Chimedza
Albert Chimedza (born 1955) is a Zimbabwean poet and founder of the Mbira Centre. His only collection of poetry, ''Counterpoint'' was published in 1984, together with Hopewell Seyaseya. Over the years, Chimedza has focused his energy on promoting ...
, director of the Mbira Centre in
Harare, has estimated that "there are at most ten thousand people in the world who play mbira."
Mbira Nyunga Nyunga
The nyunga nyunga which normally has 15 keys, originated from
Manicaland
Manicaland is a Provinces of Zimbabwe, province in eastern Zimbabwe. After Harare Province, it is the country's second-most populous province, with a population of 2.037 million, as of the 2012 Zimbabwe census, 2022 census. After Harare and Bulawa ...
where it traditionally played the entertainment role during social gatherings and commemorations.
Jeke (Jack) Tapera introduced the mbira nyunga nyunga in the 1960s from Tete province of Mozambique to Kwanongoma College of African music (now United College of Music) in Bulawayo. Two keys were then added to make fifteen (Chirimumimba, 2007), in two rows. The mbira nyunga nyunga is similar in construction to the mbira dzavadzimu, but has no hole in the soundboard. Key pitch radiates out from the center, rather than from left to right.
Zimbabwe's
Dumisani Maraire originated mbira nyunga nyunga number notation. The upper row keys (from left) are keys 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 14 while the bottom row keys are notated as 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 15. Maraire brought awareness of this instrument to the United States when he came to the University of Washington as a visiting artist from 1968 to 1972.
Recently a
Midlands State University (
Gweru, Zimbabwe) lecturer in the department of music and musicology has suggested a letter notation; the upper keys as (from first left upper key) E, D, C, F, C, D, and E and the lower or bottom keys as (from the first lower key) A, G, F, A, F, C, D, and E. But the Maraire number notation has remained the internationally accepted system (Chirimumimba, 2007).
Dutch composer
Maarten Regtien
Maarten (IPA: �maːrtə(n) is a Dutch language male given name. It is a cognate to and the standardized Dutch form of Martin, as in for example Sint Maarten (named after Martin of Tours).
People with the name
* Geert-Maarten Mol, Dutch One Da ...
(1963) uses a Mbira Nyunga Nyunga in the electronic compositio
Daddy Mbira - Mbira Penguin Talks(2014), creating soundscapes and using western composition techniques like the canon, impossible to play on a mbira.
Njari mbira
Njani mbira has 30 to 32 keys and was also originated from Zimbabwe particularly Masvingo and Makonde.
Nhare
The nhare has 23 to 24 keys and was originated from Zimbabwe. In the Zimbabwean tradition, nhare was used for rituals of communicating with Musikavanhu or Nyadenga (God).
Mbira matepe
Mbira matepe which has 26 keys originated from along the borders of Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
Outside Africa
In the diaspora
The first documentation of Kalimbas in Brazil dates back to 1723 where they are referred to as marimbas (not to be confused with
marimbas). They seem to have faded into obscurity as they didn't make it to the present day, although "modern" Kalimbas now exist in Brazil.
In
Cuba African
lamellophones along with the
Cajón influenced the origins of the marimbula, whose history is poorly documented but is suspected to have originated in eastern Cuba.
Hugh Tracy
The
Hugh Tracey kalimbas are tuned
diatonically in the key of G. The arrangement of the notes on the Hugh Tracey kalimba borrows from the typical scheme with the lowest notes in the center and the upper notes on the left and the right, with the notes in the ascending scale alternating strictly right-left and going outwards towards the two sides.
The diatonic western kalimba tuning which Tracey used was practical for a worldwide instrument—with hundreds of African kalimba tunings, the chosen Western standard would maximize the number of people who would immediately connect with the kalimba. The practicality of this note arrangement, with notes going up the scale in a right-left-right-left progression, is that modal 1-3-5 or 1-3-5-7 chords are made by playing adjacent tines. If chords are played in the lower octave, the same notes will appear on the opposite side of the kalimba in the upper octave, which makes it very easy to simultaneously play a melody in the upper octave and an accompanying harmony in the lower octave. So, the arrangement of notes on the Hugh Tracey kalimba (and on virtually any kalimba that copies the instrument) makes certain complex musical operations very simple.
Alternative tunings are possible, as the tines of most kalimbas are easily pushed in and out to sharpen or flatten their pitch. Some alternative tunings simply change the key of the kalimba, without changing the note layout scheme. C major is a popular tuning, sold by multiple manufacturers. Other alternative tunings move the kalimba to non-modal scales (such as Middle-Eastern scales). Each note of the kalimba can be tuned independently (unlike a guitar), so any scale, western or non-western, is possible, and traditional African scales are still accessible to this modern African instrument. Composer
Georg Hajdu has tuned the Hugh Tracey alto kalimba to the chromatic steps of the
Bohlen–Pierce scale in a piece called ''Just Her – Jester – Gesture''. The Bohlen–Pierce scale subdivides the just twelfth into 13 steps.
File:TrebleKalimba.jpg, Hugh Tracey treble kalimba
File:OctagonalTwoOctaveMbira.jpg, An octagonal mbira of high craftsmanship which spans two octaves.
Related instruments
Instruments related to or inspired by the mbira include:
*
Array mbira, a modern invention consisting of as many as 150 tines configured in a special order based on the
circle of fifths (see
Isomorphic keyboard).
*
Gravikord, an electrified double harp that is a modern
kora
Kora may refer to:
Places India
* Kora, Bardhaman, West Bengal
* Kora, Bharuch, Gujarat
* Korha, Katihar, also known as Kora, in Bihar
* Kora, Kendrapara, Odisha
* Kora, Wardha, Maharastra
* Kora, Tumakuru, Karnataka
* Toyaguda, Adilabad, Telan ...
and kalimba hybrid, inspired by the
cross rhythms of the mbira. The Gravikord was invented in 1986 by Bob Grawi an American musician and artist. It is also tuned in the key of G major/E minor in an extended version of the Hugh Tracey kalimba tone layout with a range of octaves. Music and playing techniques learned on this kalimba can be easily transferred and played on the Gravikord.
*
Guitaret, an
electric lamellophone made by
Hohner and invented by
Ernst Zacharias, in 1963.
*
Ikembe, an instrument common among the
Hutu of
Rwanda
Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...
,
Burundi
Burundi (, ), officially the Republic of Burundi ( rn, Repuburika y’Uburundi ; Swahili language, Swahili: ''Jamuhuri ya Burundi''; French language, French: ''République du Burundi'' ), is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley at the ...
, and eastern
DR Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...
.
* Modern kalimba, the mbira inspired instruments of Hugh Tracey. Named after the original kalimba (ancestor of mbira).
*
Kisanji among
Ngala-speaking people of western
DR Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...
and eastern
Congo Republic.
*
Thoom Otieno The tom is a plucked lamellophone thumb piano used in the traditional music of the Nuer and Anuak ethnic groups of western Ethiopia. The instruments is also called thoom Otieno and may also be spelled toom and thom.
Thoom is a Anywaa word. Besides ...
(also tom, thom or toom), popular in
Gambela Region, in Western Ethiopia on the border of South Sudan.
In popular culture
On May 21, 2020, as part of Zimbabwe Culture Week,
Google honoured the mbira with a
doodle which included a button allowing users to hear and play the instrument virtually. The doodle also featured the
animated story of a young girl who learns to play the mbira and inspires a new generation of mbira players after becoming an established artist as an adult.
Even though it is set in
Botswana, the 1980 movie ''
The Gods Must Be Crazy'' features a character playing the mbira.
Players
See also
*
Electric lamellophone
*
Gravikord
*
Music of Africa
*
Polyrhythm
*
Xylophone
Citations
General references
*
Fowler, Andy(2020
Discover Mbira : Ancient Zimbabwean Trance MusicMbira Magic
Fowler, Andy(2015
Unlocking Mbira : Chord Progression and System of Mbira WorkbookMbira Magic
* Gahadzikwa, Fungai
Fowler, Andy(2016
Traditional Mbira Song BookMbira Magic
*
*
Kwenda, ForwardFowler, Andy(2019
Learn to Play Mbira : Traditional Songs and ImprovisationMbira Magic
*
*
(Note: this article is the original source of the Matepe song ''Siti'', as played by Zimbabwean Marimba band Musango.)
*
*
*
External links
Mbira.org "the non-profit organization devoted to Shona mbira music", based in
Berkeley, California
''sympathetic-resonances.org'' A free online platform featuring computer-generated playback and visualisation of mbira transcriptions, with the long-term goal of cultural preservation.
MbiraMagic.ComMbira Education Website
Mbira.Online: Mbira Masters Video and Notation Archive
(2014), electronic mbira composition by M.Regtien.
Zimfest.org a Zimbabwean Music Festival held annually in North America that offers many opportunities to learn and listen to mbira.
Archived Link
Mbira.co.zw "A community of mbira players, researchers, makers & lovers, for the enhancement of the Mbira, music & fashion. Mbira Transfiguration & Permanence", based in
Harare, Zimbabwe
{{Authority control
African musical instruments
Comb lamellophones
Equatoguinean musical instruments
Precolonial African musical instruments
Zimbabwean musical instruments
Pitched percussion instruments