Marimba Close-Up

Not much to say about the marimba except it’s Guatemala’s national instrument. But, did you know the chromatic marimba was developed in Guatemala? If not, read on…

The marimba is a musical instrument in the percussion family. It consists of a set of wooden keys or bars with resonators. The bars are struck with mallets to produce musical tones. The keys are arranged as those of a piano, with the accidentals raised vertically and overlapping the natural keys (similar to a piano) to aid the performer both visually and physically. This instrument is a type of xylophone, but with broader and lower tonal range and resonators.

The chromatic marimba was developed in Guatemala[1] from the diatonic marimba, an instrument whose ancestor was a type of balafon that African slaves built in Central America… continue reading at Wikipedia.

© 2011 – 2020, Rudy Giron. All rights reserved.