Keeping your kalimba in tune is the most important thing you can do to sound great on your kalimba. There are two issues: First, which tuning do you want? Second, how do you achieve that tuning? You can check out the "How to Play" pages for your particular kind of kalimba to learn what tunings are available for that kalimba. But as to actually doing the tuning? Watch these videos!

A video showing the principles of tuning a kalimba, and the difference an alternate tuning can make in the kalimba sound.

Video showing me touch up the tuning of an Alto kalimba.

Most Hugh Tracey kalimbas will hold their tuning for several months. If you play it very hard, you may need to retune weekly. If you drop your kalimba, or if you get the tines caught in a bag or on your shirt sleeve, you can mess up the tuning. Just touching up on the tuning can take as little as a few minutes. Changing over to a different tuning can take a bit longer.

When changing to a different tuning, make sure you know how to get back to the original tuning. Also, make sure that you can actually achieve that tuning . For example, is a note so low that the tine isn't long enough to make that note?

Sometimes when you retune, you will awaken a buzz. Learn how to fix the buzz on the Fundamentals page.

Also, after you tune up, make sure that the tines are more-or-less equally spaced.

If this hasn't answered your tuning questions, please contact me to let me know how I can help you.

—Mark Holdaway