We shall be considering a special instrument called....... Kora
The Kora stringed instrument played commonly in the West Africa. That reminds of the animated film of Avatar Kora.
A Kora has 21 strings which are played by plucking with the fingers.
In the pics above, we can see a man with the Kora. The Kora combines both the features of a Lute and that of an Harp.
Construction
A kora is a Mandinka harp built from a large calabash cut in half and covered with cow skin to make a resonator with a long hardwood neck.
The skin is supported by two handles that run under it. It has 21 strings, each playing a different note. It supports a notched double free-standing bridge.
It doesn't fit into any one category of musical instrument, but rather several, and must be classified as a "double-bridge-harp-lute". They do not end in a soundboard but are held in notches on a bridge, making it a bridge harp. They originate from a string arm or neck and cross a bridge directly supported by a resonating chamber, making it a Lute too.
Well, it can be classified as Composite chordophone sounded by the bare fingers.
A traditional kora player is called a "korafola" and comes from the Jali castle, who are traditional oral historians, genealogists and storytellers, similar to bards. They pass their skills on to their descendants. The term jali or jeli may also be spelled djeli or djéli, with the latter spellings more common, where French is spoken. The instrument is played in Guinea, Guinea- Bissau, Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso and the Gambia.
Below is a music performed with a Kora.
Traditional koras feature strings, eleven played by the left hand and ten by the right.
Modern koras made in the Casamance region of southern Senegal sometimes feature additional bass strings, adding up to four strings to the traditional 21.
By moving leather tuning rings up and down the neck, a kora player can retune the instrument into one of four seven-note scales. These scales are close in tuning to western major, minor and Lydian mode.
Unlike the traditional Kora, many koras are now made with guitar-type tuning heads instead of the traditional leather rings. The advantage is that they are much easier to tune.
It was important to introduce the instrument and make us have a feel of how a Kora is so that you'll be able to differentiate it from Korona...
So you won't mistakenly be playing Korona instead of Kora.
But now, having learnt about what a Kora is, How do we take care of a it?
1. Never grease or oil the skin. We mention earlier that the Kora is made with a calabash cut in two and covered with a Leather skin. So, Don't grease or oil the skin
2. When you are not playing, it is best to store the instrument in its cover.
3. Avoid overheating such as prolonged exposure to the sun or storage in a vehicle in the summer because the skin will relax excessively while cooling.
Note this,
When acquiring a kora, it requires excessive tuning for the first 2 weeks before the instrument and its chords stabilize.
4. If the strings tend to break, replace them with smaller diameters to get the desired notes more easily.
5. Make sure that the bridge is always perpendicular to the soundboard, in order to avoid unwanted sound
From the foregoing, It is evident that a Kora is a instrument that what being included in your next budget for musical instruments.
We have come to the end of today's class on the study of Kora. And I hope you enjoyed the lecture.
Thanks so much for reading, please leave a comment below.
