Entry #7 - African Drumming Workshop

Curtis Andrews and Kurai Mubaiwa gave a workshop in the MUN Choral Room today...I was expecting drums and gongs and such, but with Curtis you never really know quite what to expect. As it happen, they both gave a presentation on the mbira, which until now I always knew as a thumb piano. 90 minutes later I had a whole new appreciation of this seemingly simplistic instrument. Curtis explained the technique: the mbira is actually played with the two thumbs and two forefingers. The right hand little finger goes inside the small hole in the soundboard on the right, and the third and fourth RH fingers wrap around the BACK of the board. The left hand doesn't bear the weight of the instrument at all - it just plays. Then Curtis and Kurai gave a short demo: they each picked a mbira and began to play. It was amazing. I had to give a chuckle because they were sitting so still and all this wonderful music was just dancing from these two tiny boxes; the image that came to my mind was of two kids playing Nintendo Game Boys! Of course, I couldn't see how much their fingers and thumbs were working - it all seemed so effortless. That's the magic of performance right there, I guess. The mbira is made by attaching thin metal tabs, often old spoon handles beaten down, and tied to a wooden board. It is often placed inside a large gourd, called a deze, which acts at a resonator. This made the mbira surprisingly loud. They had brought several insruments and gourds for us to play, and the act of putting the mbira in this large bowl (and bracing it with a stick) filled the Choral Room with lots of happy, chimey notes. Someone asked Kurai about the deze. He told us that his own was wooden, but many are now made with fiberglass to withstand knocks and bumps. He said he preferred the sound of the wooden gourd; to him it seemed fuller, more natural (I was not surprised by this).

Some mbiras have bottlecaps attached to create a desirable buzzing sound. I guess it's less expensive than an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff pedal! Mbiras are often tuned differently, to match our modes, so that playing two or more together, as C & K demonstrated, results in very pleasant harmonies.
Time to learn a song! Kurai and Curtis showed us the accompaniment pattern to a song called "Chemutengure" about a cart driver whom everyone despises, yet feels no shame because he knows how important he is to transporting people and goods around town. The pattern had a nice swing feel to it, but was more complicated music than what I would have given a lowly thumb piano credit for (much like the cab driver in the song). Once we all had the pattern mastered, C & K layered it with more elaborate playing, and taught us the harmony parts for the vocal call-and-response.

I really enjoyed this workshop because it opened my eyes to something I had known about but only considered a toy. Yet Wikipedia tells me it is among the most popular instruments in Africa. Imogen Heap plays one, as does Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, and Maurice White of Earth, Wind & Fire. Now all I have to do is figure out how to get my hands on one - a REAL one.