The balafon is a pentatonic or heptatonic resonated frame xylophone of West Africa. The Susu and Malinké people of Guinea are closely associated with it as are the Manding peoples of Senegal and The Gambia. Famous balafon players include El Hadj Djeli Sory Kouyaté, Gert Kilian and, early in his career, superstar Mory Kanté. It usually has 17-21 keys. The keys are cut from béné wood and suspended on a wooden frame, over calabash gourd resonators of graduated sizes resulting in a continuous nasal buzzing sound due to a small hole in each gourd covered with a membrane made of a paper thin spider's egg case. Balafons are played sitting down,or by attaching a strap to the frame, they can be played while standing. In music, a pentatonic scale is a scale with five notes per octave. ... In music a heptatonic scale is a scale (music) with seven (hepta) degrees. ... Xylophone in Bali 1937 The xylophone (from the Greek meaning wooden sound) is a musical instrument in the percussion family which probably originated in Indonesia (Nettl 1956, p. ...  Western Africa (UN subregion)  Maghreb West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. ... Susu may refer to: the Ganges and Indus River Dolphin the Soussou, an ethnic group in Guinea the Sosso Empire, a twelfth-century Takrur kingdom of West Africa the Southampton University Students Union the susu account, a saving scheme for poor people in Ghana This is a disambiguation page... The Malinké are an African Mandé ethnic group. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Mory Kanté (born February 24, 1950 in Kissidougou, Guinea) is an acclaimed vocalist and player of the kora harp. ...