Marimba : Guatemalan musical instrument

The marimba is a musical instrument in the family of percussion that is made of resonators with a set of wooden bars. The bars can be struck with a tool that resembles hammer called “mallet” to produce the tone of the music. The bars are well arranged just like that of the piano with the musical notes raised uprightly and placed over the natural bars. This is to help the player visually and physically. This is a similar instrument to the xylophone but it has boarder and lower range and resonators. The marimba using all semitones in octave was developed in the southern part of Mexico from the diatonic marimba. A modern use of marimba is believed to have solo performances. Today’s existing composers have used the special sound of the marimba more in the recent years.

source of picture: www.adams-music.com

The bars of the marimba are usually produced from either a wood like rosewood or any other synthetic material. The next affordable material for producing the bars of a marimba is Padouk. The bars that are made from any synthetic material is normally diminish in sound quality when compared with the bars that are produced from the wood, but they are not expensive and has weather resistance which makes them the best for outdoor use. Marimbas that are produced of the wood are always played inside the house because the bars are sensitive to pitch change because of the weather. The bars of this musical instrument are wider and longer at the lowest pitched notes and shorter as the notes gets higher. When tuning the musical instrument, wood could be taken from the middle lower side of the bar to lower the pitch. In Africa, most marimbas are made locally from any available materials. When struck off center, the marimba bars can produce the best articulated tone and fullest sounds.

There is no particular range for the this musical instrument, but the most seen marimbas ranges from 4 octaves, 4.3 octaves and 5 octaves; many other ranges are available; 4.5 octaves, 4.6 octaves and 5.5 octaves. The range of this instrument has been expanding gradually with more notes being added to them.

The resonator is the key factor that leads to the production of great sounds by the marimba. The resonators are tubes that are hung below each bar of the instrument whose length differs according to rate of occurrence that the bar brings up. The vibration from the bars resonates as they overtake through the tubes and this will amplify the tone in a similar manner as that of the guitar. The resonator tuning is about slightly changing the tubes themselves to make up for the temperature and humidity conditions in the room where the musical instrument is kept.