'Making a Balofon (Ballophone)'

This video explores the traditional methods and techniques which are used to make a traditional African Balofon. The video follows a man who begins the process of making a balofon measuring out the lengths of wood to produce the main structure of the instrument, to creating the keys and fine tuning them, before attaching the dried vegetable 'balls' which allow the sound to resonate, The finally testing the instrument.

The simple idea of using a hollow vessel to resonate the sound produced from hitting the note is very useful when thinking about creating new instruments, especially if there was a method of also deadening the sound which is produced and resonated, to allow the user a greater level of flexibility with the instrument.