The marimba is a percussion instrument consisting of a set of wooden bars struck with yarn wrapped or rubber mallets to produce musical tones. Resonators or pipes are suspended underneath the bars to amplify the sound of the wooden bars.

Where does the marimba originate from?

According to oral history, the story of the marimba began a long, long time ago in Africa, where holes were dug in the ground, wooden bars were made to cross over this hole, and the bars were struck to produce sound.

Is the marimba African?

Marimba is one of many African names for the xylophone, and, because African instruments bearing this name frequently have a tuned calabash resonator for each wooden bar, some ethnomusicologists use the name marimba to distinguish gourd-resonated from other xylophones. ...