West African stringed instrument with 21 strings of the family of bridge harps or harp-lutes
Toumani Diabate, Mory Kante, Foday Musa Suso, Ballake Cissoko, Prince Diabate, Mamadou Diabate
A traditional kora is built from a large calabash cut in half and covered with cow skin or goat skin to make a resonator, and has a notched bridge. The sound of a kora resembles that of a harp. The player uses the thumb and index finger of both hands to pluck the strings in polyrhythmic patterns (using the remaining fingers to hold the vertical bars on either side of the strings to secure the instrument). Ostinato patterns ("Kumbengo") and improvised solo runs ("Birimintingo") are played simultaneously.
Kora players traditionally come from griot (jali, jeli) families who are historians, genealogists and storytellers who pass their skills and knowledge on to their descendants. The instrument is mainly played in Mali, Guinea, Senegal, and the Gambia.
Koras feature 21 strings, eleven played by the left hand and ten by the right. Strings were originally made from thin strips of hide - now most strings are made from nylon monofilament or fishing line, sometimes plaited together to create thicker strings.
The illustration shows the typical string layout of traditional koras, in this case in G-major.
The scale begins on the left with the lowest note G2(1), followed by D3 (2), E3(3) and F#3(4);
(A2, B2 and C3 are not used, there is a skip of a fifth between string 1 and 2)
The next note in the scale is G3(5) on the right at which point notes begin to alternate between right and left, so A3(6) follows on the left, B3(7) on the right and so on down to G5(19) on the right.
A5(20) and B5(21) finish off the scale on the right.
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