About the Kora - construction
The kora is made from a large gourd - known as a calabash. It is cut in half and covered with cow skin and fixed into place and decorated with tacks. This forms the resonating body, and it has a notched bridge that sit on a cloth covered pad, perpendicular to the bridge, as shown above in our web site banner. A cross bar support two vertical handles.
The neck varies from less than a metre to almost 1.5metres. The koras we make are approximately 1.3metres high. The neck goes through two holes, one at the top and one at the bottom of the calabash.
A ring goes through the neck at the bottom underneath the calabash and the tail strings are tied onto it.
The 21 fishing line strings are then tied to these tail strings, and go over the bridge and up to the neck. Here each string is either attached to a traditional leather ring or increasingly, a peg of some description.
Some koras, particularly in the Cassamance area of southern Senegal. have extra bass strings added. Strings were originally made from animal hide but now nylon line is used.
The advantage of guitar machine heads over the traditional leather rings is that they make it much easier to tune the kora. The disadvantage is that it limits the pitch of the instrument as the string lengths are more fixed and lighter strings are needed to lift it much more than a tone.
Learning to tune a kora is arguably as difficult as learning to play it and many people entranced by the sound while in Africa, buy a kora and then find they unable to keep it in tune once they are home, relegating it to the status of ornament.
Koras can be converted to replace the leather rings with machine heads. Wooden pegs and harp pegs are also used but both can still cause tuning problems in damper climates unless the pegs are made with great skill.
Some kora players such as Seckou Keita have double necked koras, allowing them to switch from one tuning to another within seconds, and giving them increased flexibility.
A ring goes through the neck at the bottom underneath the calabash and the tail strings are tied onto it.
The 21 fishing line strings are then tied to these tail strings, and go over the bridge and up to the neck. Here each string is either attached to a traditional leather ring or increasingly, a peg of some description.
Some koras, particularly in the Cassamance area of southern Senegal. have extra bass strings added. Strings were originally made from animal hide but now nylon line is used.
The advantage of guitar machine heads over the traditional leather rings is that they make it much easier to tune the kora. The disadvantage is that it limits the pitch of the instrument as the string lengths are more fixed and lighter strings are needed to lift it much more than a tone.
Learning to tune a kora is arguably as difficult as learning to play it and many people entranced by the sound while in Africa, buy a kora and then find they unable to keep it in tune once they are home, relegating it to the status of ornament.
Koras can be converted to replace the leather rings with machine heads. Wooden pegs and harp pegs are also used but both can still cause tuning problems in damper climates unless the pegs are made with great skill.
Some kora players such as Seckou Keita have double necked koras, allowing them to switch from one tuning to another within seconds, and giving them increased flexibility.
