page_title: Shona people
section_title: Music
hierarchical_section_title: Shona people / Culture / Arts / Music
context_page_description: The Shona people are an ethnic group native to Southern Africa, primarily Zimbabwe. They have five major clans, and are adjacent to other groups with similar cultures and languages.
context_section_description: Shona traditional music, like other African traditional music, has constant melodies and variable rhythms. Its most important instruments are ngoma drums and the mbira. The drums vary in size and shape, depending on the type of music they are accompanying. The way in which they are played depends on the size of a drum and the type of music. Although large drums are typically played with sticks and smaller drums with an open palm, the small drum used for the amabhiza dance is played with a hand and a stick; the stick rubs, or scratches, the drum to produce a screeching sound.
  The mbira has become a national instrument of sorts in Zimbabwe. It has a number of variants, including the nhare, mbira dzavadzimu, the Mbira Nyunga Nyunga, njari mbira and matepe. The mbira is played at religious and secular gatherings, and the different mbiras have different purposes. The 22–24-key mbira dzavadzimu is used to summon spirits, and the 15-key Mbira Nyunga Nyunga is taught from primary school to university. Shona music also uses percussion instruments such as the marimba (similar to a xylophone), hosho (shakers), leg rattles, wooden clappers (makwa) and the chikorodzi, a notched stick played with another stick.
caption: Mbiras
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