Author Question: What do the terms, tuning and chuning mean in relation to the mbira? What will be an ideal ... (Read 14 times)

LCritchfi · **on:** Jul 25, 2018

What do the terms, tuning and chuning mean in relation to the mbira?

What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

What is the source of the mbiras vibration? Under what major classification of musical instruments does the mbira fall? Why?

What will be an ideal response?

brittrenee · **Reply #1 on:** Jul 25, 2018

Answer to Question 1

The English term tuning or its modified form, chuning, refer broadly to the tonal qualities of the mbira including such aspects as sound projection, pitch level, and overtones.

Answer to Question 2

The plucking of thin, long keys (tongues) produces the mbira's tones. Since the tongues of the instrument itself are plucked and vibrate to produce the tones, the instrument falls within the major classification of an idiophone. (A jew's harp operates on a similar principle.)
The mbira is also called a linguaphone (from lingua or tongue) or a lamellaphone, a plucked idiophone. (See entries for these terms in The New Harvard Dictionary of Music, edited by Don M. Randel, 1986, p. 434 and p. 452.) Other common names for the mbira are sansa, kalimba, and, outside of Africa, thumb piano.