How to Tune a Kora
Tuning a kora can feel mysterious at first, but it’s one of the most important parts of learning to play. Every player develops their own ear for it over time, and once you understand the logic of the strings, tuning becomes second nature.
There are two main kora tunings — Sauta and Silaba.
Sauta is the same as C major (and its relative minor, A minor).
Silaba is the same as F major (and its relative minor, D minor).
To move between them, you change the B strings:
In Sauta, the Bs are natural (B).
In Silaba, the Bs are flattened (B♭).
This small change carries real musical weight. Silaba supports much of the traditional repertoire and is linked with particular rhythms and phrasing, while Sauta gives a different melodic feel.
You’ll also often hear players use Silaba and Sauta to describe styles of playing, not just tunings—each carries its own character, repertoire, and approach within the wider kora tradition.
Siliba
Below is the kora bridge in Silaba tuning. See the Sauta section above. The layout is the same, but in Silaba all the B strings are flattened (B♭). You can listen to the audio below to hear a kora in Silaba tuning, starting from F2.
Sauta
Below is a top-down view of the kora bridge in Sauta tuning. The yellow line shows the order in which the strings are played, starting from F2 on the bottom left. The numbers indicate octaves according to Western music theory. It can be tricky to identify each octave by ear, so you can listen to the audio below, which plays a kora tuned to Sauta, starting from F2.
The 22nd strings
Some koras have 22 strings, and occasionally even 24, though 22 is most common in southern Senegal and sometimes The Gambia.
The extra string is added on the right side, just below the lowest note, slightly off-centre. It is tuned to B♭, not B natural.
If your kora is tuned in E, that note becomes A, not A♯, keeping the same relationship to the string above. In F tuning, the 22nd string is B♭, and players often play B♭ and F together. If tuned to B natural, the harmony between B and F sounds less pleasing, which is why most players keep it as B♭.
Other tunings
Although the kora’s layout stays the same, players often tune the whole instrument higher or lower. The two lowest strings might be E, F, F#, G, or even A, depending on the player.
You can play the same patterns in any of these tunings—the music feels the same but is in a different key.
But the suata and siliba rules still apply. For example, if the two lowest strings are tuned to E instead of F, every note moves down a semitone. What was B♭ and B in F tuning becomes A and A#. The relationship stays the same: the fourth note of the scale defines the mode.
There are many ways to tune a kora. By adjusting certain strings, you can move into almost any Western scale.
Traditionally, though, the kora used a slightly tempered scale, with intervals that differ subtly from Western tuning.
For a more in-depth read, please follow the links below