One of the fastest and easiest ways to capture your own musical ideas is to transcribe them to tablature using KTabS, the Kalimba Tablature Software. KTabS is also one of the best ways to learn how to play kalimba. It's like looking over the shoulder of someone who knows how to play. When you hit the "play" button, KTabS will highlight each note you need to play, and the sound of that note will come out of your computer's speakers.

• Sample KTabS Displays
• Using KTabS to Play Music
• Using KTabS to Write Music
• Advanced Features of KTabS
• Music Available in KTabS

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Sample KTabS Displays

KTabS can be configured for any
kind of kalimba, in any tuning.

 

KTabS lets you insert repeat signs to allow you to play
any phrase over and over until you get it just right.

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Using KTabS to Play Music

The KTabS reader is pretty straight forward - the main operations you will use are "play", "stop" and "rewind", and these functions are performed by clicking little buttons with obvious icons.

To change the speed of playback, left click to select the spot on the tablature where you want the speed change to occur (the beginning is fine for that), then right click to reveal the edit menu. Select "tempo", and the tempo dialog box comes up, allowing you to enter the new tempo in beats per minute.

Repeat open or repeat close signs can be inserted in the same way, but repeat signs can only be inserted at measure bars.

When you no longer need the repeat signs, you can select and delete.

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Using KTabS to Write Music

There are two ways to start KTabS: you can open a KTabS file with music already in it, or you could just invoke the KTabS program. If you are starting from scratch, just open the KTabS program, and select "New" from the File menu. "New" will bring up the kalimba setup box, which permits you to change the number of tines your kalimba has, which ones are painted, the paint color, how the tines are tuned, and other details regarding the appearance of the tines and notes. The default setup is for the 17-note treble kalimba. If you spend time making a new setup, be sure to save it as a Template - then, next time you make a New file, you can load that template in instead of doing all that work.

Kalimba Magic has made several KTabS templates which you are free to have.

After you have loaded a template for a specific kalimba or completed the setup, KTabS will display four measures of blank tablature. These four measures each have four "hidden beats" beneath them. Using the left mouse button, select one of the "hidden beats" in the space between the bars. Left click again on any tine in the selected beat, and you see and hear it. Not the right note? Left click on the note, and it goes away. Or left click on multiple notes to make a chord.

Using the right click menu, you can add more beats of blank tablature at any point.

Move on to the next "hidden beat" in the measure, left click to select it, and left click again to make the second note.

Do you need to change from quarter note to eighth note? While the note is highlighted (selected), select the correct type of note from the note menu.

KTabS is not just a specialized graphics program - it has built-in musical intellegence. If you tried to put two dotted half notes (worth a total of six beats) into a four beat measure, it will highlight that measure in pink, indicating that something is wrong!

To hear how everything sounds, hit repeat and play.

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Advanced Features of KTabS

A list of KTabS features is listed at the KTabS website.

Here are some of the features of the KTabS program that make it so powerful:

• KTabS has lots of keyboard shortcuts - for the different types of notes, for eample.
• Select a single note by left-clicking on it, or select a group of notes by left-clicking, holding and sliding.
• After you have selected a note or a group of notes, you can change the note type, cut and paste, or even transpose. These features really help in making music quickly with KTabS.
• You can write a song for one kalimba, select all with ctrl-A, copy, start a new file with a different kalimba template, and then paste the copied notes into the new kalimba tablature.
• KTabS lets you have multiple tablature windows open at the same time. The "tile windows" button will arrange the tablature windows so you can see them all. The "tie all views together" button will make all windows play together, so you can write music for two, three, four, or more kalimbas.
• The MIDI button lets you edit the sound that KTabS uses to represent the kalimba with. Also, you can select the MIDI device, something that could be useful if KTabS isn't working on your computer.
• The "Author Info" button permits you to input information about your song and the author.
• You can print to PDF, or export your song's tablature to a bitmap.
• You can write notes or song lyrics on the right side of the tablature.

I find KTabS to be a very powerful program, and I encourage you to fool around with it and see if it works for you, too!

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Music Available in KTabS

All the exercises in Kalimba Magic's instructional books can be downloaded from the KTabs website in KTabS format. KTabS also gives away the KTabS files for hymnals for the Alto, Treble, 8-Note, 11-Note Diatonic Jr, and the Sansula. The Alto Classical and Treble Classical packs are actually only available in KTabS format.

I have also arranged several advanced pieces for KTabS, including Nowhere Man, Shalom, and First Look Inside.

I have written or arranged hundreds of songs and scraps of music in KTabS. Sometimes, someone will request some music for a kalimba that I haven't written a book for (the Catania 12-Note, the Hugh Tracey 11-Note diatonic Jr, or the Sansula), and I'll send them some of this music in KTabS format.

And there is a growing community of people who are writing their own music in KTabS.

So, what are you waiting for? Isn't it time you came over to KTabs?