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Balanta balafon is a very rare style of West African xylophone from Guinea Bissau / Southern Senegal, the region commonly known as the Casamance. This is where the Balanta tribe live in West Africa. Physically, the balafon consists of keys which are made from various hard woods attached with rawhide or string to a supporting frame, which is typically made from bamboo. Underneath the keys are hollow gourds tuned to resonate in the same pitch as the key. These resonators amplify the sound of the keys. A common technique is to put holes in each gourd and glue thin plastic across the hole, thus creating a kazoo- like buzz sound. Traditionally tuned the same as the Manding balafon, the Balanta balafon octave is split in to 7 more or less equal parts resulting in a scale that is not common to the Western ear. A typical Balanta balafon consists of 27 keys starting on e 2 and ending on c 6, approximately 3 1/2 octaves.. This is not written in stone... every balafon maker has his own idiosyncratic tuning. Instruments are not as standardized in West Africa as they are here in the West. Nowadays the tuning, especially in urban areas in West Africa, favors the C major scale. I know this is also true in Guinea, and NYC where West Africans reside. Whether the tuning is traditional or contemporary this balafon is used as a modal instrument. Balanta traditionally play in a scale closest to D Dorian. More modern players will stretch out and play in different modes, depending on the emotion they want to portray. The Balanta balafon is usually played by 2 players. One plays a bass line, sometimes very syncopated, and sometimes very simple, depending on the song and how experienced the player is.The other plays melody, harmony and also solos. Traditionally the women sing in ceremonial settings, but most often the balafon players play and sing. It is also common to have one player covering the bass line, harmony, melody, soloing, and singing. Keba Mane, from the Balanta tribe has taught me this method. Balanta balafon music, like other West African music, demonstrates its complexity in the rhythm and its simplicity in the melody and harmony. Of course there are exceptions. The balafon player[s] play a compengho (a cyclical pattern) during a section of the song. When a new section is sung a new compengho or a variation is played. It is not a complex harmonic pattern in any sense of the word, and it is usually fairly short in length. The harmony is usually our most basic of harmonic sequences consisting of tonic and dominant- back and forth. After 10 years of study I have come to think of the Balanta balafon behind the voice similar to the way I think of the acoustic guitar behind the singer/songwriter. It provides a rhythm and harmony but is secondary to the voice. And don't forget West African music supports the dance. Without both it is incomplete. One of the truly fascinating characteristics of Balanta balafon is the unusual cadencing and timing. Many times I have been fooled into believing the pulse is in a certain place only to find that my western ears are wrong. This is after decades of music study in jazz and classical percussion. This is a common thing when learning ethnic music. For example, in the song N'jang Na, the 1st time, and several times after, I heard this song as a bouncy song phrased over 2 measures of 3. I heard the 1st and 3rd partial of the 8th note triplet as prominent, as in our typical 'swing 8th' feel. da da da da da da adaaaaaa. Of course when I saw where my teacher Keba was tapping his foot, and even more important where the dancers were feeling the pulse, I realized I was wrong. We have a somewhat preconceived idea where the beat is due to the cadence we are used to hearing in Western music. Of course there are exceptions. Balanta , and other West African music, does not always follow that rule and may cadence in a place that feels awkward to our ears. Another interesting characteristic in Balanta, and other West African music, is the stress on the 2nd partial in the 8th note triplet. Think about it. In western music we avoid it like the plague. Generally speaking even in Jazz we don't stress it. Before you jump on my case and mention Elvin or dozens of modern Jazz drummers hear me out. We teach the swing beat as dang,danga dang. Where is the 2nd partial ? Think about anything that swings. We stress the 1st and 3rd partials. When I started studying in West Africa this became so apparent to me, and even more so now. In the well known djembe rhythm Tiriba. the stress on the 2nd partial will make a novice's ear think it is the pulse. Other combinations also are common such as stressing groups of the 1st and 2nd partial & the 2nd and 3rd partial of a triplet. Where do westerners stress ? 1st and 3rd. This change can really throw the ears of Westerners, for example in the Balanta balafon songs Jabala and Almamo. The challenges encountered in the study of ethnic music such as that from West Africa, and especially Balanta balafon, ultimately lead the student's ear to hear new ways of phrasing where our Western ears don't typically go. A helpful exercise is to take a real familiar song and move the rhythm either forward or back an 8th, or a 16th, and keep the beat in the same place. Not easy to do !! For more on Balanta balafon go to www.mikebennettdrumming.com.
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