West African Instruments

Let me just shortly introduce you some of West African Instruments which I saw and heard first time in my life on the African Festival in Wien (source of information: Mamadou and Wikipedia). These were introduce by a musicion Mamadou Diabate who came to Austria from Burkina Fasso in 2000. Since then he recorded serveral albums and presents West African music in European countries. So here we go:

Balafon = pentatonic or heptatonic (that means that its scale does have 5 instead of common 7 distinct notes) resonated frame xylofon (thats the thing which you can see at the background of the second picture), usually has 17 - 21 keys. This instrument is typical for Guinea, Mali, Senegal, and The Gambia.

N'goni = string instrument, something like lute. (on both pictures). This instrument is several houndred years old. Originally, was played by young men during hunting ceremonies. There exists various types of N'gonis instruements, which may have from 4 to 10 strings. N'goni is probably the most popular instrument in Mali.

Doundoun = the generic name for a family of West African Drums (picture will come later)