Description: The sape is a chordophone in the shape of a boat shaped lute that has a short neck. It is traditionally found amongst the Orang Olu [up river people]. Originally the melodies for the sape were played for ritual music to induce the performer into a trance. Nowadays the sape is a secular instrument and played in informal social occasions. Currently there are 35 traditional melodies that are categorized according into two different modes. The first mode is played for the Men’s long house dance and the second mode is played for the “Woman’s long house dance”.

Anatomy of the Sape: Originally the sape has only 2 strings and 3 frets recently the sape evolved to having 3 or 4 strings and 13 frets. On the fourth string closest to the top a thumb tack is added to achieve an octave. Sape’s having 2, 5 or 8 strings are quite rare. The frets are removable by lifting the fret with a warm knife heated by a flame of a candle. The body and neck are carved from the same piece of insect resistant bitter wood called “Tebuloh”. In total length of the instrument the body is quite long however the neck is quite short.

A note about the sape tuning: The frets are arranged in a pentatonic scale and the strings are arranged to a fifth and a tonic.

Sape Tuning

D-B-D"-B"