Michael Yee

Final Paper
The Shona is the name collectively given to two groups of Bantu people in the east and
southeast Zimbabwe. The Shona are known for playing the mbria, a lamellaphone, which is has
plucked tonguesmounted on a soundboard or soundbox. It is the most developed and classical
instrument of the Shona people. Lamellaphones are the most popular instruments used by the
Shona other instruments they play are the karimba, the njari, and the matepe. Each Shona mbira
player often specializes on a variety of instruments. Many musical pieces the Shona play consist
of inner melodic lines that are from changes in right and left hand parts rather than changes in
key. The different kind of lamellaphones created bass, middle and high melodic parts.
These different lamellaphones are used for an important spiritual and religious ceremony
called the Bira. The Shona believe that their ancestors are constantly around and interact with the
living. They believe in keeping good relations with their ancestors and friends who have died.
The way the dead talk and keep relations with the living is through possessions of living Shona
members. The ceremony starts out as a gathering but as the night goes on the members join in by
clapping and singing melodies that interact with the mbiras bass part or a high-pitched yodeling
style. Music is essential to this ceremony because it is what calls the spirits to enter the body of
the medium. Once a tune is played that the spirit likes the medium is transformed and the
members of the ceremony can interact and talk to the ancestor.
The Shona are known for their interlocking and call-and-response styles of music. With
these two styles it creates a chanting like practice that can be seen and heard all over sub-Saharan
Africa. Another feature is the aesthetic preference for dense overlapping textures and buzzy

timbres that contribute to a dense sound quality. Also, the music is often cyclical and open-ended
in form involving one or more repeated melodies or rhythmic patterns or ostinatos. Most of the
times musical performances are done for a long time with little variation and the community is
highly involved in the process. The music played is famous for its rhythmic complexity. Multiple
patterns are performed at once to create tension and ambiguity that a listener can focus on
depending on the instrument that is concentrated on.
The music that the Shona people play is conceptualized as a process linked to specific
people and particular moments whereas music here in western cultures has become a
reproducible sound object. This can further be seen in the two basic parts of mbira pieces called
the kushaura, to lead the piece, and kutsinhira, to accompany, are nouns not verbs because they
refer to things not actions.
To go into more depth on the range the mbira and pieces the Shona play there are
different types of styles used. The longest, lowest keyson the mbira are found in the center and
the keys become shorter and higher as they fan out to the ends. The mbira pieces are constructed
so that the left thumb interlocks with the right thumb and forefinger to play a single midrange
melody. Different pieces are played differently. The left thumb also alternates between the
midrange keys of the upper left row and the bass keys of the lower left row which produces a
bass line that will interlock with the melody. When I went to see the performance by Kinobe he
demonstrated how this works and it is very cool to see how this instrument is played.
The Shona peoples prefer dense, rich sounds. Bottle caps and shells attached to gourds
are used with the mbira sounds to create a buzzing sounds with discrete pitches that contrast with
the timbres. This multiple layers produced create a density that is very nice to listen too. The
sound produced is very easy to sing along with for the Shona people.

The typical form of classical mbira is a melodic-harmonic cycle. There are ostinato, or
forty-eight quick beat which is divided into four twelve-beat phrases in 12/8 meter. As the
performance progresses, small variations, including traditional formulas and improvised lines are
gradually added. Mbira players must have the patience not to rush the variations otherwise the
product of the song may not turn out good and it will ruin the other players part because they are
going too fast. Usually, each variation will be repeated a number of times before further
development of the song is needed. This is why when you listen to Shona music the song may
sound the same for long periods of time before new parts are added. This is a very popular form
of the Shona music.
The Shona consist of very dense, interlocking, and repetitive sounds coming from metal
sticks coming out of a soundboard. The sounds are very catchy and are used to represent object
or people. The Shona play these tones for their own enjoyment but also for the Bira which is
when they talk to their dead ancestors. Family is very important to the Shona people as they
believe relationships never end with anyone even if they die. This is an important part of their
culture and music is the way they connect with the dead. This is a very cool and interesting
culture to explore and has contributed a lot to the music of Africa.