TIP: Know your kalimba’s tuning

A kalimba’s “tuning” is the set of notes the tines are tuned to

In order to keep your kalimba tuned correctly, you need to know what its notes are supposed to sound like.  An experienced player will know the sound of each note on their kalimba by heart, and will either know which note each tine should be tuned to, or will be able to figure this out quickly.  What if you are not an experienced player?

This tip connects you with dozens of possible tunings for a dozen different kalimbas. Your tuning is probably here. The rest – becoming an expert – is up to you!

 To maintain the tuning of your kalimba, you need to be aware of the proper note for every tine. Every kalimba shipped by Kalimba Magic will come with a tuning chart, either made by the manufacturer, or made by Kalimba Magic (a tuning card made by Kalimba Magic would indicate that you have bought a kalimba that is in a tuning that we pioneered, or it is an actual instrument that we pioneered). The tuning card should make things easy – unless you lose your card, or you bought your kalimba from someone who doesn’t tune their kalimbas, or you want to experiment with another tuning. For any of these cases, the solution is to find your tuning. Read on.

We maintain a huge library of tunings for many of the kalimbas we sell. The tunings, as represented by tuning charts, show all the tines of the kalimba along with note names (C, D, E) and numbers indicating the degree of the scale each note represents (1, 2, 3). Most of the tunings have a paragraph or two of explanatory notes. We have begun a campaign to create new recordings of every kalimba tuning. These recordings will be posted alongside their tuning charts.

The link below will take you to our library of kalimba tunings.