Advanced Alto Kalimba Download

Description

ZIP file download with tablature in PDF, KTabS, and MP3 format for 34 songs, riffs, and exercises for the advanced alto player – a great next step after the Alto Fundamentals Book! Also works for the Bb and D Treble kalimbas.

Included in this instructional download:

* Tablature PDFs for 34 songs. Some are full songs, 1, 2, or 3 pages long. Some are just riffs or exercises, half a page or less. The short exercises should be repeated many times – 4, 8, 16. Feel free to modify the music as your mind wanders.

* KTabS (.ktb) files for each song. You can play these on your Windows computer using the KTabS (Kalimba Tablature Software) program, the very program which I used to write them out. You can change the MIDI sound of the ?kalimba? in the program, adjust the playback tempo, add repeats, cut and paste and rearrange, add harmonies, snip out notes you don?t like. Or just play it back as is, letting KTabS scroll up the tablature as it highlights the notes you should be playing and sounding them out of your computer speakers.

* MP3s – In part because I am lazy and don?t want to learn to play each piece exactly as I?ve written it out (I tend to make both brilliant improvisations and mistakes when I play), I am recording what my computer sounds like when KTabS plays these songs. On a few of them, there are some nuanced musical inflections that can?t be captured with KTabS, so I have actually bit the bullet and recorded a few of the exercises – some of the Grooves. SO, even if you don?t have KTabS, you can still hear more or less what the music sounds like.

34 Songs – listed alphabetically:

• 3 Against 2
• 3 Against 2 1A – Learning Exercise (for this pattern-based riff, concentrate on the two hands separately, then try to put them together).
• Amazing Grace – the most popular song in the world over the last 150 years.
• Backbones – the 1 + 5 of several chords – KNOW THIS COLD!
• Choral_MH – the full version of the song from Alto Fundamentals
• Chord Exercise – try playing this before you play Chorale
• Cool Alto Thing 1
• Cool Thing in 6-8
• Dona Nobis Pachem – a composite version and three different parts of the round
• Dylan’s Blowin’ in the Wind
• Dylan’s Buckets of Rain
• Dylan’s Mr. Tambourine Man
• Essence of Tranquility – related to Irish Tune
• First Look Inside – my ?YouTube Hit Single? – full song
• Going Home – the Dvorak theme with kalimba-style counterpoint
• Groove 01
• Groove 02
• Groove 03
• Groove 04
• Groove 05
• Groove 06
• Groove 07
• Irish Tune 1 – full song
• Jordan’s Peruvian Song – full song
• Lorena 1
• Miss Rowan Davies – full song
• Peanut Vendor
• Shalom – from my CD ?First Look Inside? – full song
• There Ain?t No Ash Will Burn
• Triads – an exercise for arpeggiated triads
• You Are My Sunshine – written with Jfig instead of KTabS (i.e., from the era ?Before KTabS? = BK), this shows melody notes larger and counterpoint/harmony notes smaller.
• Walking in the Air – full song
• Walk Like an Egyptian – ok , it is a similar song, not exactly the 80s hit , but it has been on my mind.
• Wildwood Flower

This download is designed for ALTO Kalimba in mind, but the Bb Treble and D Treble kalimbas (and all their variant tunings) can also read this tablature – of course, the note names will be different, but the physical patterns of playing the tines will be identical. The Bb Treble has two more notes, at the top (one on the far left and one on the far right) which do not appear in this tablature. The D Treble has two extra notes that are at the bottom – that is, right in the middle. If these extra notes confuse you, put a small piece of yellow stick pad paper right on them to remind you that these tines are not included in the 15-note Alto Tablature.