Epizo and the Red Devil in a Krin Kan

[bubudi]

[Waraba]

Do krin have to be tuned to each other?

[bubudi]

musically, i'd say definitely. why play two drums that don't complement each other? but that is to our purposes. in the forest, i think a lot of krin aren't necessarily a good match because of using what was at hand and making them one at a time only when one was in really bad repair. but musicians in the cities will usually buy krin that are a good match to each other, as you can hear in their recordings.

[James]

Awesome videos thanks for posting. I don't see why if you think of krin as drums they would have to be tuned to others, as long as there is a difference in pitch between them....

Are they tuned to notes?

[e2c]

James - the drums in a set of dununs are tuned to each other... just sayin'. I think it's logical to do the same with krin, providing that several of them are going to be played together on a regular basis...

I have heard djembes that "clash" with one another sonically, and that can be as painful as a sour note on other kinds of instruments!

[davidognomo]

btw, does anyone know what are the tonal relations between the doundouns?
I mean, of course the kenkeni is the higher pitch and the dunumba is the lowest, but is that all?

James,
about the pitch of krins, from the moment its "bars" have a frequency that coresponds to a conventioned musical note (even with some micro imprecision), they are tuned to notes. The relation between them may be fruit of hasard or not, I'm guessing depending on who is makin' them or choosing/playing them.

But I'm convinced that certainly there will be more agreable combinations and some others more "clashy", using e2c's word.

[Waraba]

I have heard djembes that "clash" with one another sonically, and that can be as painful as a sour note on other kinds of instruments!

I have never heard djembes clash unless one was out of tune in the first place. You?

[e2c]

I have heard djembes that "clash" with one another sonically, and that can be as painful as a sour note on other kinds of instruments!

I have never heard djembes clash unless one was out of tune in the first place. You?

I have... though only occasionally. Has a lot to do with the drum's overtones, the sound of X shell with Y skin. (Am talking about the overtones that are inherent in the drum's sound, not excessive ringing, etc.) The "clash" would probably not exist if the drum(s) could be magically reskinned on the spot.

But I do play some instruments that are made entirely of wood (cajon, rhythm bones made of various woods), and i've got instruments that clash with one another, if only ever so slightly.

Back to what James mentioned re. the tuning of a krin - i would assume that it has a great deal to do with each individual piece of wood, in terms of how it is carved, how large the sound chamber is, how thick the "bars" are, etc. It's certainly not as adjustable as bala or marimba keys are, where shaving a bit off a key can alter the pitch in a way that makes it possible to get many, many different notes, scales, etc. (You could do it with krin, but it would take quite a few instruments - and players - to make it work.)

[gr3vans]

good golly miss zouli

[RustyJFunk]

Very nice. I have a couple of small krins. I am looking for one the is large. Bigger than the one's in the video.

[michi]

Very nice. I have a couple of small krins. I am looking for one the is large. Bigger than the one's in the video.

Wula Drum and Drumskull Drums both sell krin. They might be able to help with large one. Just drop them an email.

Cheers,

Michi.

[djembeweaver]

I've been playing Krin in Samsou's ballet arrangements for years and he's never payed any attention to the relative tuning of the krins.

Most krins I've come across are not tuned to a scale as such. This might be largely due to the difficulty of precise tuning (you can't just put a few knots in to raise the pitch!). That said the best krins I've come across (samsou's and the ones he got made for us) do tend to be tuned to a scale. Mine is tuned to an inverted C major scale. This might be because it was tuned to a balafon. However, even though both mine and Samsou's krin are both 'tuned' to a kind of scale, they are tuned to different scales. When you play them together they make their own kind of sense (we don't recognise bird song in terms of a conventional scale but it still sounds beautiful).

The same goes for dunduns in my experience. Yes, you might tune your 3 drums so they sound nice relative to each other (though you never hear africans tuning to a major or minor scale - try tuning 1-3-5 and it'll sound all western and weird) but when you have several duns played ballet style together I've never seen people tune the duns to each other.

To me the tunings are more like bird song than western music. I think that's why africans tend to like stuff that sounds out of tune to a western ear!

[djembeweaver]

Typical - At rehearsal today Samsou brought some different krins and said they made a nicer sound together, so clearly some combinations are better than others to his ear. Having said that, they are not in the same key and make no sense according the classical system. Clearly what he is hearing is quite different to what we would describe as harmony. Much more like talking or bird song I think.