DIY Balafon 巴拉風; calabash 葫蘆; DIY dremel tools

"The Wood and the Calabash" by Hugo Zemp ***  47mn 2002

木質樂器 + 葫蘆

Video documentary:

Very interesting documentary film.  It shows you how to make a balafon, how to start from cutting down a tree.  The tree must be treated as a sacred life and an offering of a chicken was made.  The wood is then dried in 2 days.  Each piece carefully carved with an axe, knife for small decorative marks.  The frame is tied together with cow hide, both the support and the smaller horizontals.  Leather cushions the contact points.  Tuning is made with an existing balafon.  So each note is compared carefully w the original.  To raise the pitch or lower the pitch, you either shorten the wood piece (key) or hollow out he center.  The Balafon is also used to communicate a message.  The sound is very melodic and pleasing as its wood keys struck with a rubber hammer.
Only a balafon player could make a good balafon tuner.  

Maybe we could make a balafon -?  A DIY project and see how it compares w an existing approved/certified correctly tuned one?

The Wood and the Calabash by Hugo Zemp

Purchase: http://www.der.org/films/wood-and-the...

Among the Senufo people of northern Côte d'Ivoire, the balafon (xylophone with calabash resonators) is an emblematic musical instrument. Balafon makers are all musicians, but a balafon player isn't necessarily an instrument maker. The film shows in detail the manufacture of this musical instrument, an indispensable element in the life of the Senufo people. Each step is shown, from the initial prayer to the genies of the balafon before felling a tree, through the cutting and tuning of the keys and the resonators, to the fixing of the buzzing membranes, which give this instrument its very characteristic timbre. Nanga, the balafon maker, talks about his work and discusses different aspects with friends during a meal.

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http://web2.nmns.edu.tw/Exhibits/102/Gourd/Gourd7.html
葫蘆的品種  Calabash in Taichung, Taiwan

http://www.79door.com/cart_step1no.aspseeds from taobao etc

http://www.kidsgardening.org/node/13048

a story of 2 years artist in residence, with 8 classes of first grade children
how to grow mini gourds from seeds, then made into a Native Indian rattle.

http://www.welburngourds.com/downloads/GourdCraftingGuide.pdf

http://diyguides.dremel.com/wooden-instruments-students-can-make-20044.html
dremel tool for DIY projects