The Amadinda

 

The Amadinda is an African xylophone originally made from slabs of wood or even large sticks, with or without gourds for resonators. There was no reason for this project other than to see if I could make a simple mallet instrument. The box was made from plywood (which also acted as the resonators) and the bars were made from maple. 

Since this was to be a true xylophone, the bars were all of equal width. Tuning was done by cutting the bars to different lengths and removing material from the bottom. Using a router I created a sort of 'stepped pyramid' instead of the traditional arc cut found on marimba or xylophone bars. 

Cutting the underside is not only for tuning but it focuses the pitch and creates the characteristic overtones of the instrument. Since I wanted to play this with other 'Western' instruments, I chose to use a pentatonic scale of 2 2/5 octaves (C#,D#,F#,G#,A#,C#,D#,F#,G#,A#,C#,D#).

Two people sit on either side of the instrument and strike the ends of the bars (as opposed to the center of the bars on 'Western' mallet instruments). Music is performed by 'hocketing' meaning the first player plays the 'downbeats' and the second player the 'upbeats'. The resulting melody is accentuated by a third player striking only the top two notes. But to use the terms 'down' and 'up' beats is for a Western understanding since the so called tempo of player 1 can be in excess of 200 bpm. Thinking of afterbeats is nearly impossible at this tempo. It requires a mind shift where there is no downbeat and no upbeat. This gestalt way of thinking creates an awareness of a separate third part (reinforced by the third player).