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String instruments

Ngoni - Donso ngoni string instrument

Ngoni

The ngoni is a typically African string instrument from Mali formed of a resonant shell covered with a goatskin (or a wooden cover), with a wooden handle. The strings, made of nylon, are attached with rings, parallel to the handle which follows the same line as the shell.

The donso ngoni (“hunter’s instrument”), with four to six strings tuned to a pentatonic scale with the musician’s voice, is an African harp-lute cousin of the kora.