Mark Holdaway

Understanding ties and dots – extending the length of notes Are you having difficulty understanding note and timing symbols in the tablature? This blog post is just for you – it’s the second of our series on learning how to read kalimba tablature.  In the first post, we talked about what the “tine map” means, looked at the different types of notes and how long each kind lasts, and introduced how to understand timing and keeping time.   This installment of the multi-part series on reading tablature covers the details of the “tie” symbol (a sideways smile) and the “dot” (a dot immediately after – or “above” – any note

Finally a breakthrough! Chromatic tablature that is easy to read and understand! The Chromatic kalimba is a wonderful innovation based on the standard Hugh Tracey diatonic kalimbas such as the Alto and the Treble. Diatonic kalimbas play basically like the white notes on a piano. As long as a song stays in key with no accidentals, you can probably play it on an Alto or Treble kalimba. (An “accidental” is a note that is not in the key signature and requires a “flat,” “sharp,” or “natural” symbol. For the kalimba, though, this is a foreign concept, as “accidental” usually means “that note isn’t on the kalimba.”) If a song changes

This old, old instrument lives on and can play lots of 17-Note karimba music 9-Note Student Karimbas The “student karimba” is my own invention – or rather, it is my re-invention.  I came up with the name, but Andrew Tracey calls it the “kalimba core” as well as the “original mbira”.  I like to call it “the kalimba that time left behind.” While this little instrument is far from popular these days, it was mentioned in the first scholarly article on the kalimba written in 1950 by missionary A.M. Jones.  I feel this simple instrument’s pattern is truly important because of where it stands in the history of all thumb

Syncopation, variations, tweaks and trills The Lotus-tuned karimba was created by the inventive recording artist SaReGaMa.  He once received an out-of-tune African-tuned karimba as a gift.  Rather than simply tuning it up, SaReGaMa instead used this as an opportunity to invent several of his own tunings and create music that worked with each tuning.  The Lotus tuning is the one he used for a song that he improvised one night in an effort to get his baby daughter, Lotus, to go to sleep.  He made a video of that improvisation,  known to the world as “Kalimba Solo for Lotus.” Available at the Kalimba Magic Shop, we have two instructional downloads

Learn this technique and write your own songs The African-tuned karimba is a very interesting instrument.  Jega Tapera was a South African who played traditional music on a 13-note karimba, a historical folk instrument.  In the 1950s he was discovered by Andrew Tracey, who recognized his excellence, and Tapera subsequently began teaching at the Kwonangoma School in Rhodesia, where the 15-note version of the African-tuned karimba came into being in 1960 to further Tapera’s music.  In 1980 the 17-note version was first made by Tracey’s South African company, African Musical Instruments, which still sells Hugh Tracey kalimbas today. Based on much scholarly research, Andrew Tracey put forth a very interesting

Free Tablature for “Silent Night” for the Treble Kalimba In my mind, most songs that you can play on the Treble kalimba are also possible to play on the Alto kalimba, and this offers great flexibility.  But there are some songs that are written for Alto that require its low notes and are just not possible on the Treble which by nature is in a higher range.  You could retune the Treble into a Bb Treble, and then it would behave just like an Alto with two extra notes. But there is one (very famous) song that I don’t think can be done properly on either the Alto kalimba or

Free Tablature for “Away in a Manger” for the truly versatile 8-Note Kalimba Click to download 8-Note tablature for “Away in a Manger” Kalimbas generally have more tines than an 8-note does. You may be wondering what could you do with only eight notes.  While it might seem that a kalimba with only eight notes would not be very capable, it turns out that there is quite a bit of music available to the 8-Note kalimba. Almost every 8-Note kalimba is tuned to the C major scale, playing from low to high: “Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do.”  In addition to being useful for many songs in C,

Free Tablature for Tinashe’s Song “Zambezi” Click to download Tablature for “Zambezi” Several people have requested the tablature for Tinashe’s popular and touching song “Zambezi,” which has been around on YouTube for a while. It is a great song for the kalimba, as it is pretty much just a four-measure riff that is repeated through the song with minimal changes.  It is not difficult and even novice players can learn to play this song in about 10 or 15 minutes. “Zambezi” is performed by Tinashe on solo Alto kalimba and voice, and we also have a link to him performing it with a four-piece band. There is not much information available about