Slide

["samba -" <sambacomet@hotmail.com>]

   At one tme I did graduate work in ethnomusicaolgy ,and my area of focus 
was the African roots of American music. The Diddey Bow,is not a slide  
it's 
  single string  streched taught on a stick( or sometimes attached to the 
side of a building) and played percussively.It's called berimbau in brazil 
and there are many variations all over Africa,commonly adding a gourd 
resonator,which can be closed and opened by pressing against ,and moving 
from the body,causing a dynamic and pitch variation  further which adds  
rythmic epressiveness.Hugh Tracy's book on southern African instruments 
details one version which is ony played by Women ,who move the gourd on 
and 
off a breast.The only instrument I ever heard of that could physically 
only 
be played by one gender.  There are also versions where the string is 
connected to a very large stick which is rooted into the ground and a hole 
in the ground resonates the vibration.