Strike the wooden keys and hear the gourds underneath answer, with the soft buzz of their membranes. Roll across the keys with two fingers, switch to the Mande tuning of seven equal steps that no piano can play, and follow a song key by key.
The sound of a balafon is not only wood: it is the gourds that amplify each key and the membranes that make them buzz.
Each key rings with the overtones of a tuned wooden bar, short and woody. Underneath, a gourd sized to the note prolongs the sound, and a thin membrane stretched over a hole in the gourd adds the characteristic buzz. GOONS synthesizes all three.
Many balafons of the Mande tradition are tuned to seven steps of almost the same size, which sits between major and minor to Western ears. Choose Mande and hear it; choose the pentatonic or the seven-note major tuning for melodies you already know.
The keys are laid out like a real balafon, long and low on the left, short and high on the right, tied to a curved frame over their gourds. Click or tap them, or roll a finger across them for the fast runs balafon players love.
Each key shows its number in the scale, with dots for the octave above or below: the songs are written the same way, so you can read them straight off the instrument. Switch to note names or computer keys any time.
Market Morning and Sunset Circle, two originals written by GOONS in key numbers, work in all three tunings. Folk tunes join them in the pentatonic and major tunings. Listen, then play along with the glowing key.
The middle row of the keyboard plays the keys from the lowest up, and the top row continues: seventeen keys for seventeen keys. They are read by position on QWERTY, AZERTY and QWERTZ keyboards.
Drag a finger from left to right: low to high, the gourds light up one by one.
Find 1, the tonic, without dots: that is the middle of the instrument.
Choose Mande in the tuning menu and play the same run: seven nearly equal steps.
Choose Market Morning, press Listen, then Play along and follow the glowing key.
| Type | Balafon (West African wooden xylophone with gourd resonators), playable on this page, free |
|---|---|
| Keys | 17 wooden keys from C3; a gourd under each key |
| Tunings | Pentatonic (C D E G A), seven notes (C major), Mande (seven nearly equal steps per octave) |
| Labels | Key numbers with octave dots, note names, computer keys, or none |
| Sound | Modal synthesis of a wooden bar, gourd resonance, membrane buzz, mallet attack, room reverb |
| Songs | Two GOONS originals in key numbers, folk tunes; listen and play-along modes |
| Controls | Mouse, touch, pen; keyboard middle and top rows |
| Requirements | Any modern browser with Web Audio - Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari |
The balafon is the wooden xylophone of West Africa, played across Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Gambia, Côte d'Ivoire and beyond. Its keys of hardwood rest on a curved frame, with a gourd under each one to amplify it; small holes in the gourds are covered with a thin membrane that buzzes. In Mande culture it is the instrument of the griots, the musicians and keepers of history. The Sosso Bala, a balafon kept in Niagassola, Guinea, and said to date from the 13th century, is on the UNESCO list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
The player strikes the keys with two mallets with rubber or leather heads, often holding a second mallet or a bell, and plays fast repeating patterns that interlock with other balafons, drums and voices. The gourds are chosen and cut so each one resonates with its key, and players adjust the buzz of the membranes to their taste.
Keep the rhythm on the djembe, or play the kalimba of southern Africa. For struck bronze instead of wood, try the gamelan, and find every instrument on the world music studio map.
Yes. The balafon at the top of this page is free, with no account and nothing to install. It runs in your browser with the Web Audio API.
Each gourd under the keys has small holes covered with a thin membrane. When the key rings, the membrane vibrates against the air in the gourd and adds a buzzing colour, which balafon players value as part of the sound.
Many balafons of the Mande tradition divide the octave into seven steps of nearly equal size, unlike the piano's mix of whole and half steps. It sounds neither major nor minor to Western ears. On this page it is modelled with seven exactly equal steps.
It varies: small balafons have a dozen keys, large ones more than twenty. This one has 17, a common size, spanning more than two octaves.
Market Morning and Sunset Circle are originals written by GOONS. The folk tunes in the list are in the public domain.
The balafon is free, with no account. GOONS Studio adds a looper, synths, drum machines and a sequencer that play together - free for 7 days, no card required.
Free on this page, no account. Play the online djembe →