marimba

1. Percussion instrument of African and Latin American origin. It consists of a row of chromatically tuned wooden bars, arranged in the manner of a piano keyboard. The bars are supported by a wooden frame over resonator tubes and they are sounded by being struck with mallets. The modern marimba is a mellower version of the xylophone. Versions of the marimba can have a range of up to seven octaves, but the modern standard is four octaves (C3 to C7) or four-and-a-third octaves (A2 to C7). Notes played on the marimba sound in the same octave as the written notation. 

 

2. A regional term for the African mbira.