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The rough wood is pain stakingly worked using a handheld plane. The maker first selects appropriate blanks to make the different sized keys matching their size for width and length. The low notes are made from long and wide thick pieces, the higher notes from the opposite. In addition to smoothing and shaping the rough blanks, a depression is cut into the under side of the key, shown in the picture, to finely set its mass and the length of the air gap between the key and the resonant calabash below. This is done to match its frequency exactly to that made by striking the corresponding key on the maker's own ‘master’ xylophone. This, in addition to the craftsman's experience, is how different xylophones are created in tune with each other.