Ethnic Uganda Music Instrument - The Baganda and the Basoga Lyre
The Baganda and the Basoga lyre is made of lizard skin and laced with to a non-sonorous skin in the same manner as the harp and drums.
The strings are tied into a piece of wood and inserted into a hole where the two arms meet of the lyre meet.
The 'Ganda lyre' (endongo) has one hole, the 'Soga instrument (entongoli) has two pieces of cloth, barkcloth or banana fibers wrapped around the yoke. The strings are wound round and round this material until it acts as a tuning peg.
The strings on the bowl lyre are not arranged in progressive order, as they are on the arched harp and the zither.
The highest note in the scale is third from the left and the lowest, fifth. Strings 7, 2, 4, 1 and 5 are octaves.
Ethnic Music Instrument , Engalabi from Uganda
The traditional Fumbo has a reptile skin nailed to the wood, however the government due to environmental reasons has long discouraged this practice. The engalabi from Buganda region, which is played in music theatres, plays an important part in the ceremony called "Okwabya olumbe".
This is the installation of a successor to the deceased, thus the saying in Luganda "Tugenda mungalabi", meaning we are going to the engalabi, that is, long drum. The rule in playing the drum is the use of bare hands.
