Gravikord

The Gravikord is a 24 string electric double bridge-harp invented by Robert Grawi in 1984,[1] which is closely related to both the West African kora and the mbira.

It was designed to employ a separated double tonal array structure making it possible to easily play cross-rhythms in a polyrhythmic musical style in a modern electro-acoustic instrument.

The bridge is curved to follow the arc of a strum from the hands which hold the shortened raised handles directly in the palms.

The playing technique is similar to that of the kora: the player plucks the strings with the thumb and index finger of each hand.

Also, the fingers of each hand can play independent rhythmic patterns, which can easily cross over from treble to bass and back, either smoothly or with varying amounts of syncopation.

These simple rhythms will produce complex cross-rhythms including repeating on beat/off beat pattern shifts that would be very difficult to create by any other means.

This characteristically African structure allows simple playing techniques to combine, producing polyrhythmic music of great beauty and complexity.

Grawi originally desired an instrument on which he could play polyrhythms more easily than on the guitar, and he refined the Gravikord's design over several years to meet this goal.

These first Gravikords already differed from the kora by having the tuning mechanisms removed from the neck and placed at the base, and an extensively re-designed bridge which also incorporated a kalimba that could be played simultaneously with the strings.

Grawi made several unique prototypes during this period using wood, aluminum, and other materials, with features including stereo output and variable pitch,[2] and finally patented the Gravikord in 1984.

There is no resonator; the tones of the twenty-four strings are amplified by a piezo-electric pickup in the bridge, and the instrument is made for natural and comfortable playing in a sitting or standing position.

Throughout the playing range the notes of a scale rise strictly alternately and symmetrically, making all the intervals of adjacent strings on each side of the bridge in thirds.

This is a new model of the Gravikord which Bob Grawi designed[citation needed] in collaboration with jazz musician Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah aka Christian Scott.

Since the Gravikord and the Gravi-kora produce no conflicting acoustic sound, they can be played with guitar effects such as delay, distortion, reverb units, or wah-wah pedals.

[5] The Metropolitan Museum of Art included the Gravikord in the show "Enduring Rhythms" (New York City, October 3, 1996 – August 3, 1997).

In an article about this exhibition in The New York Times, Rita Reif wrote "The show stoppers include a Gravikord, an electronically amplified stringed instrument that sounds like an earthy harp.

In their shapes and sounds, Mr. Moore (curator of the show) said, these instruments also represent a kind of continuity in 'the layered rhythms, the mixed timbres, and all that movement which is so African.