Calabash (Percussion)
In African music, the calabash is a percussion instrument of the family of idiophones consisting of a half of a large calabash gourd, which is struck with the palms, fingers, wrist or objects to produce a variety of percussive sounds. In Tuareg music, the askalabo is a calabash "partly submerged in water, drummed to mimic camels' hooves". The calabash can also be used as a sound board: a finger piano (a flat board with a bridge on which prongs are fastened, that are then played with the fingers) can use a calabash for that purpose, and the gongoma is a similar instrument, using saw blades on a bridge affixed over the calabash—the blades are plucked with the fingers, while the player taps the calabash with their other hand.
Calabash (Percussion)
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- Name
- Calabash
- Field
- idiophone and container.
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wikidata · Q978694 · wikipedia · Calabash (percussion)
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Overview
Overview
A calabash can also be used as a resonator, in the case of the umakhweyane, a middle-braced calabash bow. • Illustration — Percussionists playing Calabash with both fists and fingers
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Key facts
• Name — Calabash • Background — percussion • Classification — percussion • Hornbostel Sachs — 111.3
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The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Calabash (percussion), revision 1263075043 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
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1- idiophoneTerminology
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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