The balafon is a tuned West African percussion instrument, something like the antecedent of the marimba. It is made from the bala wood. The wooden keys, each of them tuned to a certain tone, are struck with padded sticks (mallets). The balafon is mostly tuned to a pentatonic scale. However there are versions tuned to tetratonic, septatonic, or chromatic scales as well.
The hollow calabash gourds are suspended under the wooden keys and function as resonators. Each gourd has a small hole that used to be covered with thin spider's egg case filament, while the cigarette foil is used nowadays. This detail produces a buzzing sound with every stroke.
The balafon may be played as a solo instrument, but it is often played as part of West African ensembles, together with West African drums.
