Berim-what?

Okay, so this is sort of a low-blow.

I wish I could somehow embed the three pictures above into the middle of the post, but I'll just refer back to them as I go. The object at hand here is a berimbau. It's an instrument with origins in West Africa, but predominantly coming from Brazil nowadays. Yes, it's a musical instrument. No, nobody ever guesses that. It's mainly used in a martial art/dance form known as Capoeira.

I just typed up the explanation of what it actually is, and because it's so frighteningly long, I'll let you create your own ideas of the instrument, first. I've already given away that it's a musical instrument, which is the first error most people make, based on affordances. I walk around campus with it sometimes, and I'm always mistaken for an archer. Yes, it's a bow. No, it's not for archery. The next segment is a set of questions I'd like to ask you to think about to yourself before you get to the stupidly-long explanation of what this is. What exactly are the parts? How does this fit together? How do you even make music? What crazy person designed this thing? How does one learn about this, or learn how to play it?

Here's where the fun begins. Exhibit A:

We have a hollowed-out, dried-out, varnished gourd (cabaça), with a two holes drilled in the top, and some string tied through them. After that, we have a rock (yes, literally, a rock) (dobrão), and a stick (yes, literally just a stick. This one is actually part of a wooden dowel, but whatever) (baqueta). The other things you see in this picture are a small shaker, made of the cut-out part of the gourd, some wicker-or-other-reed-like-substance, and seeds or small rocks. It's called a "caixixi" (cuh-shee-shee). It's technically it's own separate instrument. And we can barely see part of the main body of this instrument, which is a big, flexible piece of wood (verga), and a steel wire (arame). The second picture shows the berimbau after being strung and the gourd attached, and the third picture is me actually playing said instrument. If you look closely at the third, you may realize that this instrument is held with one hand, controlling most of the weight with the pinky finger, controlling pitch with the stone, held by forefinger and thumb, and the other hand holding the shaker-thing, and the stick, with the actual notes being created by hitting the steel wire with the stick.

Yes, it's as painful as it looks, at least at first.

So, with all of that information you didn't care to read, we can now answer the questions. I just explained what the parts are, how they fit together, and how you make music. The instrument was designed hundreds of years ago, in tribal West Africa. I'd imagine the original design was slightly different (i.e. cat intestine as opposed to steel wire), but the design is the same. That may explain why the design is so poor. No affordances, no practicality, no way to know anything about it without someone telling you. They used whatever means/materials they could in order to make music. They didn't necessarily think about how visually appealing it may be, or how easy to play it may be. I sort of wish they had...

Really, if I handed these parts to any of you, I'd make a fair assumption nobody could actually put it together and play it correctly, even with said description. I've assembled it in front of people, and handed it to them, and they still failed to play correctly. The only way to learn is to have somebody teach you, and you spend a lot of time practicing.

I'm fairly certain this utter lack of sense/intuition, coupled with the utter lack of prior experience with said instrument, is a testament to the horrible design of this instrument.

Cheers,
-Brad

P.S- if you really want to know more, feel free to ask me/Wikipedia ^_^