The Guembri : Wonderful Music Instrument!

Instrument of the family of cordophnones of Morocco, in North Africa, the guimbri (or guembri) is a plucked stringed lute of the Gnawa of Morocco (community of former Mandingo slaves coming from Mali (formerly Western Sudan) and Guinea. The guimbri is played by pinching the strings and striking the skin at the same time to obtain a double bass and percussion register.It is generally played by the maalem, master musician and lead singer of the troupe animating the "lila de derdeba ", a rite of possession, a pagan tradition (trance music).
The guimbri (guembri, gembri, gumbri, gembri or gambri) consists of a sound box about 20 to 35 cm long, covered with a skin of goat or camel tanned. In the upper part of this resonance table is inserted a long cylindrical wooden handle with 3 ropes, originally made of gut or leather straps (nowadays nylon), fixed by wooden dowels. The 3 strings being tuned in re-re-sol (fundamental, octave, fourth). The 2 bass strings corresponding to the 2 treble strings of a bass, but the "serious-acute-medium" configuration makes you find yourself playing very different things quite intuitively. On the upper part of the handle is attached the "sersara" (sort of rattle) set in motion by the vibrations of the strings and producing a specific rustle.