N'kora - Ten course, 2 strings per course, Kora to "N'kora" conversion
N'kora
another invention:
Building instructions are at this URL on my webpage:
http://DennisHavlena.com/N-kora.htm
I got to thinking ------ as the much as I dearly love the kora & as much as I've quite seriously tried to learn how to play it for over three decades, I'd not feel comfortable performing my handful of kora tunes in public. Now, at age 68, I realize all the more clearly that I'll likely never be much of a kora player. Truth be known, I spend a lot more time diddling with making instruments than I do playing them.
In the past I've built several Malian N'gonis as well as the closely related Goni from Burkina Faso. Their pentatonic, no-wrong-notes scale makes them leagues easier to play than the Kora, which, being chromatically tuned, has the potential for lots of "wrong notes" (in my hands at least!).
With this in mind, I figured that it'd be fun to build an experimental ten-course N'goni with each note doubled (two same-pitched strings instead of the usual single string). Sorta like the difference between a regular six-string guitar vs a 12-string guitar - adds harmonics & interesting beat-notes.
What I did was to take one of the bunch of Koras I've built, a simple rather small-bodied one, & converted it into a doubled-string, ten course N'goni while retaining the Kora configuration & appearance: hand-grips, bridge, bridge stabilization, skin bracing system etc - thus the silly name, N'kora.
It plays exactly like a conventional N'goni - just with doubled strings
(& an arbitrarily added single low, bass string).
See http://DennisHavlena.com/n-kora.htm for converting info.