skylanth:

hebrideansky:

evanedinger:

evanedinger:

I want one so badly now

Reblogging this again because I’ve listened to it 10 times; IT’S SO GOOD!

Details & Tutorial

You can find these at flea markets and in old peoples’ houses.  I’ve had at least three older relatives who had these things lying around their houses and I never even realized they were musical instruments.  I assumed they were for tuning pianos or something.

I’ve worked in a charity shop for 3yrs and we get a lot of old person house clearance stuff and one of these has never come in (but loads of other weird instruments have). I think the old people in @evanedinger‘s part of the world should send us their stuff so I can have one.

One of my favorite instruments! This is a thumb piano or Mbira (though known by many many different names) and was invented some 3000 years ago on the West Coast of Africa made of bamboo, and metal ones were invented about 1300 years ago in the Zambezi River valley. They’re popular in many parts of Africa and were introduced in America in the 40s and 50s, which is probably why you can find them in antique shops, though they’ve been popular ever since and make good gifts for those musically inclined or not, as they’re fun to plunk out tunes on. Kind of in the same camp as the ocarina in that respect, except that it doesn’t play a role in any popular video games. Yet. Someone get on that.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbira