What is an Aslatua?

Each ball of a Kashaka (also known as the aslatua) is a hollow gourd from the Oncoba spinosa tree. The stick is glued to the thin wall of the gourd, and once it has dried, the end of the stick protruding from the gourd is carefully sawed off.

What type of instrument is a mbira?

percussion instrument
The thumb piano, or mbira – a name derived from Shona language of Zimbabwe – is uniquely African percussion instrument. In the distant past it was made entirely of wood or bamboo and could have been used for a few thousand years.

Where is Asalato?

Pronounced “us-la-twa”, this simple and unique traditional instrument (also known as asalato, kashaka, cascas, televi, kasso-kassoni) originates from Ghana. Each pod is a gourd from the Swawa tree.

What is the difference between an mbira and a kalimba?

The kalimba is actually a smaller, modern version of the mbira, which dates back more than 1,000 years in Zimbabwe. The kalimba features the seven-note diatonic scale used in traditional Western music while the non-western scale of the mbira features the same notes but not in the same order.

What is the commonly used musical instrument in Africa?

Most widely spread and played instruments in Africa are the drum, the xylophone, the mbira, rattles and shakers. The one-string musical bow, played all over the continent but now nearly abandoned, was once responsible for all the vocal scales that are used today in African music.

How do you hold Asalato?

In playing, one of the pods is held in the palm with the cord going between the first and middle fingers, the other pod is flipped around and caught with the little finger. It makes a clacking sound when the two pods contact and a shake sound (more natural than western plastic “egg shakers”) when shaken.

What is a shekere made out of?

The shekere is a West African percussion instrument consisting of a dried gourd with a woven netting of beads covering the gourd. The instrument is commonly used in West African and Latin American music and can also be heard in many popular forms of music.