Re: Slide

[Ramiro Musotto <ramirose@ism.com.br>]

You said berimbau .
That's my main instrument .
I do live looping with a lot of berimbaus playing together at 
different pitches .
regards
Ramiro

>   At one tme I did graduate work in ethnomusicaolgy ,and my area of 
>focus was the African roots of American music. The Diddey Bow,is not 
>a slide  it's  single string  streched taught on a stick( or 
>sometimes attached to the side of a building) and played 
>percussively.It's called berimbau in brazil and there are many 
>variations all over Africa,commonly adding a gourd resonator,which 
>can be closed and opened by pressing against ,and moving from the 
>body,causing a dynamic and pitch variation  further which adds 
>rythmic epressiveness.Hugh Tracy's book on southern African 
>instruments details one version which is ony played by Women ,who 
>move the gourd on and off a breast.The only instrument I ever heard 
>of that could physically only be played by one gender.  There are 
>also versions where the string is connected to a very large stick 
>which is rooted into the ground and a hole in the ground resonates 
>the vibration.