Array mbira
Similar to the tuning systems I use on the Bachelor QS and
the Moodswinger Bill
Wesley also invented the array system, following a logical tone configuration
based on the circle of fifths. All neighbouring thumbs in this system are a
perfect harmonic fourth or fifth, depending if it is left or right.
The array system is sometimes handy, but can also be
difficult when youÕre not very trained with it. The biggest pro in my opinion
is you can make errors while playing and accidentally pluck a thumb or string
besides the supposed to played one and it still doesnÕt sound totally bad. IÕm
a bit clumsy with plucking so for me a very handy pro.
Description
The array mbira is a hand-crafted modern musical instrument
with a bell-like sound. It is made in the USA by its inventor Bill Wesley and
manufactured by Wesley with Patrick Hadley in San Diego, California. United States.
It is based upon the African mbira thumb piano which is native to Zimbabwe and
is part of the lamellaphone family. These types of instruments are generally
played with the thumbs and sometimes the fingers.
The array mbira is a radical redesign of the African mbira.
The notes are arranged according to the array system, invented in the United
States by musicologist, performer, and author Bill Wesley. The array system is
a specific pattern of arranging musical notes that is designed from music
theory for ease of play. The array system is both isomorphic and unimorphic
(meaning that all the notes of any given key signature will be unified into a
single area that excludes notes outside that key signature). There is only one
unimorphic planar system available on an instrument at this time, and that is
the system used for organizing the array mbira.
The instrument consists of an inlaid wooden hollow sounding
box upon which are mounted a large number of bent metal tines held down by a
bolted crossbar. Names of the notes are stamped into the metal crossbar. There
are as many as 35 groupings, each containing from three to five octaves,
arranged in a diagonal form for playing the corresponding octaves
simultaneously.
The sequence of the tines are arranged similar to the
strings of a bass guitar. The adjacent groups are a fifth interval away in a
left to right direction, and a fourth interval away when moving laterally the
opposite way. Sounding each grouping of octaves in a side to side direction
runs through the circle of fifths, unlike that of a piano which runs laterally
up the chromatic scale left to right. The tines are made shorter to sound
higher in pitch, so the major scale travels away from the player toward the
back of the instrument. On the array system, the major scale is played by
sounding every other group of tines and using the location of the chromatic
notes contained in the scale to shift the pattern. Usually, the array mbira is
built large enough to accommodate three repetitions of all the notes in a scale
through all keys in three to five octaves. (For instance, there are 175 tines
in a 35 grouped, five octave instrument.)
Although playing a melody is unfamiliar for musicians who
have trained on other instruments which are more commonly arranged similar to
the piano, the advantage of playing chords on the array mbira is simplified.
The relationship of one classification of chord, (for example a major seventh)
holds the same form through all the keys. On the array mbira, this is true for
every classification of chord, even the most complex altered chords.
External links
Go to list of experimental instruments
built by other inventors
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