Connecting You To The Wider World of Mbira

Selected free Articles and Downloads

There's masses of useful information here. The advanced papers are quite analytical, take your time, and come back when you're ready for more.

If something is missing, or a link has expired, please update me. Even better - use the title as a search entry into google, and mail me, suggesting a new working link. Thank you!

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For Beginners

• Getting Started with Mbira dzaVadzimu B Michael Williams - read his 'Nzira Ye Mbira' feature and find out about his other resources Here. 

Next steps:

• Learning Mbira, A Beginning

• MbiraTab series

• Traditional Mbira Scores of Luken Pasipamire

For Teachers in Schools

• Mbiras, Marimbas, and You: Zimbabwean Music for the General Music Classroom Sarah J. Bartolome

Advanced PAPERS/WRITINGS/Making/Forum

• The Game of Mbira Adrian Wagner

• The Art of Mbira Playing / Die Kunst des mbira-Spiels Gerd Grupe

• Portrait of an Innovator: Garikayi Tirikoti and His Mbira Orchestra Curtis Andrews

• The Soul of Mbira Twenty Years On: A Retrospect John Chernoff

• "Mbira" N. Scott Robinson - Note: this article contains an exhaustive bibliography and discography

• Rattletree Matepe Forum - Joel Laviolette's forum contains a wealth of useful information for Matepe and Mbira enthusiasts alike. 'The Matepe Mbira Music of Rhodesia' below is an example of the great content you can find there. 

• Richard wrote a chapter called Making Shona Mbira for the book Making Lamellophones once available here: https://barthopkin.com/books-cds/making-lamellaphones/ Now out of print - look out for second-hand copies on other sites!

Andrew Tracey

• The Family of the Mbira: The Evidence of the Tuning Plans - https://share.google/qPjba9d91TwX50fHU

• The Matepe Music of Rhodesia - https://inetbase.pt/files/original/048fe24ce462f9772f42edfbe1fc49cd05274332.pdf or The Matepe Mbira Music of Rhodesia

• The System of Mbira - https://www.scribd.com/document/863234578/Wynlib-Journal-Manager-Pages-From-African-Music-Vol-10-No-1-8-1

• How to Play The Mbira (Dza Vadzimu) - https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/yearbook-of-the-international-folk-music-council/article/abs/andrew-tracey-how-to-play-the-mbira-dza-vadzimu-roodepoort-south-africa-the-international-library-of-african-music-1970-25-pp/BE603029EF1977A0040D91B2C6EFA090

• The tuning of Mbira reeds: a contribution to the craft of Mbira making - https://journal.ru.ac.za/index.php/africanmusic/article/view/1440

Martin Scherzinger

• Fractal Geometries of an African Music

• Negotiating the Music-Theory/African-Music Nexus

• Phantom Patterns (interview)

Paul Berliner

• An Account of John Kunaka Making Mbira here: https://www.scribd.com/document/765471767/John-Kunaka-Mbira-Maker

• Advice in the final chapters of ‘The Soul of Mbira’ book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Soul-Mbira-Traditions-People-Zimbabwe/dp/0226043797