The official national musical instrument of Guatemala (it originated there), the marimba is a percussion instrument consisting of wooden bars struck with mallets. Much like a xylophone, the name marimba is from Bantu, meaning ‘many single bars.’
Wooden bars produce the best sound, with rosewood the preferred material, but tone and pitch can change with humidity and other changes in temperature, so in some cases, synthetic material is used. The mallets are also usually made of wood, with rubber at the end, generally wrapped with yarn.
Listen to the Berklee Marimba Ensemble:
Martha Reynolds Writes 
Tomorrow, I’ll be musical too – my N post visits somewhere with bagpipes! No sound, but a nice picture of a friend playing.
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Yay!
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I didn’t realize there was a such a thing as “national instruments”. Good to know! 😀
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I don’t think America has one, though. Do we?
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I always associated ‘marimba’ with dance and never realized it was the instrument. I keep on learning.
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As I keep on learning from your posts, Denise 🙂
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