November 26, 2009
Kalimba Magic NEWS
AMTA Music Therapists Discover the Kalimba
Deb and I just got back from the American Music Therapy Association's national meeting in San Diego. We met a lot of neat people, we shared our kalimba wisdom with a lot of people, and we heard about how music therapists across the country are using the kalimba.
In a month or two, we'll write up an article sharing some of the many types of experiences music therapists are having with the kalimba. This month we'll share some of the materials we provided to music therapists at this meeting.
If you would like to share your experiences using the kalimba therapeutically, drop us a line, we'd like to include your comments in the next music therapy feature of the Kalimba Magic newsletter!
What Kalimba Should I Use for Music Therapy?
That depends on how you want to use the kalimba!
I put this flier together for the American Musical Therapy Association (AMTA) meeting to help music therapists to select just the right kalimba for any given client's skills and needs.
We supply information on both sides of the flyer. On one side of the flier we provide a short list of the kinds of kalimbas that we recommend for therapeutic use, describing the strengths of each. On the back, we list the books and educational resources that are available for each type of kalimba.
This flier will help you to accurately identify the kalimba or kalimbas that are right for you or for your clients.
Click to view the flyer as a pdf file.
Ten Easy Ways to Use the Kalimba in Music Therapy
The core of our presentation at the concurrent session of the AMTA meeting was 10 suggestions for how to use kalimbas in music therapy. In our session, we touched on three of these ways as a group, and three small break-out groups explored three different modalities of using the kalimba, and then these groups returned to present what they came up with.
The "Ten Easy Ways" handout details information essential to using your kalimba successfully in various situations. How do you keep the kalimba in tune? What chords should I play on the guitar to work with the various kalimbas? How can a kalimba work in a drum circle?
 |
 |
| Music therapists, ranging in expertise, demonstrating a use of three similarly-tuned kalimbas. |
Two more music therapists discovering the joys of the kalimba. |
But just as soon as I got to the AMTA meeting, I realized I could just as well supplement the list of essential 10 items, with items numbered from 11 to nearly infinity. These supplementary items would describe the many pathways of discovery of the healing benefits of the kalimba.
For example, therapists can play the kalimba every day and enjoy an evolving relationship until they are ready to introduce the instrument into a clinical setting. The kalimba is may be one tool among many musical instruments that can bless the human spirit. For some, the kalimba is a particularly magical instrument that stands out in its ability to move and heal hearts and minds.
Great Kalimba Holders
A perfect tool for increasing kalimba accessibility
Last week, I played kalimba for an hour to a group of mentally engaged and appreciative seniors at an independent/assisted living place in Tucson. After the performance, one woman in a wheelchair was waiting to talk to me. When I went to her, she told me she knew she could do this - play the kalimba. She played up one side and then up the other with her good hand. But having the kalimba in her lap as she sat in her wheelchair did not give her hand a very good angle to play the tines. At that moment, I remembered the instrument holders made by A Day's Work that Deb and I had seen at the AMTA Meeting. If I had had one of these holders to attach to the table and hold the kalimba, I think this woman would have a very different experience with the kalimba.
The people at A Day's Work are masters at what they do. They understand the breadth of requirements that different tables or instruments place on their products. There are many different table clamps available, and you can swap in different sorts of attachments onto the clamps - including, of course, the kalimba holders.
And one more item made by A Day's Work that might be useful for bringing the kalimba to a wider audience: the pick assist allows people with a grasp but little control over individual digits to pluck an instrument such as a guitar or a kalimba.
If you are trying to make the kalimba (or other instruments) more accessible to seniors or people with special needs, check out the variety solutions offered by A Day's Work.
The Kalimba Magic Newsletter Archives
Discover the world of kalimbas at http://www.kalimbamagic.com
Shop for kalimbas and accessories at
the KALIMBA MAGIC SHOP