Mark Holdaway

Chiwoniso found just where her voice fit, and it was on an F# karimba Chiwoniso, the late, gifted Zimbabwean-American musician, played a 15-note karimba. This instrument was originally taught at the historic Kwanangoma School of African Music in Zimbabwe, popularized by her father Dumisani Maraire as the “mbira nyunga nyunga.” It was usually tuned to the key of F. But Chiwoniso played her own 15-note in F#, in a not-uncommon musical strategy.  Often musicians will change the tuning of their instruments for the purposes of fostering their best singing (or that of the vocalists they accompany).  I myself play guitar for some women singers, and every time we try a

Africans and Europeans Both Used This Cool Trick Generally, when you encounter a kalimba, it is usually in a particular key.  The Alto usually comes in G major.  The Bb Treble comes in Bb.  The 17-Note African-tuned karimba comes in A (unless we retune it), and the 15-note karimba (aka mbira nyunga nyunga) comes in F. One usually plays a G major kalimba in G; but there are other ways.  You can actually pick a different note on the kalimba and make that one be the root note.  You establish a particular note as the root note by emphasizing it as “home base.”  You can emphasize a note as “home base”

It has been many weeks since our last Kalimba Magic newsletter.  I have been working very hard on a number of fronts, and I am very pleased to inform you of some of our recent accomplishments and offerings, many of which can benefit you.  Check and see!   Now through March 22, 2017 you can save 20% on any Sansula, Sansula case, Sansula instructional book or download, or any Hokema kalimba! Shop for Hokema Kalimbas This is what one enthusiastic customer had to say about the new Hokema B11 “Melody” Kalimba: “The B11 is like my dream kalimba! I LOVE it! The extra notes are just what I wanted, the

An anonymous donor has provided funds for five kalimbas The B11 Kalimba is a nice kalimba for music therapy clients Do you work with people through your music?  Have you found yourself wishing that you could just gift a kalimba to one of those people?  Did you ever think that if your client had a kalimba of their own, they would become more familiar with it, and that more love and music would blossom forth? In a collaboration between Kalimba Magic and a generous therapeutic musician who works using kalimbas, a grant is being offered to provide five kalimbas for the clients of therapeutic musicians. We are using the term “therapeutic musician” broadly

I couldn’t believe it – a juice spill on my favorite kalimba! Fortunately, I know a good kalimba doctor! This B flat Treble kalimba is about 50 years old. Photo taken after the clean up. It was the grapefruit juice drink that did me in. It somehow splattered on my old (50 years or so!) Bb Treble, perhaps my favorite kalimba, as I was on my way to a performance. While performing, I first noticed one note on the far left not ringing clearly.  About 20 seconds later, the adjacent note went dim, and within a minute, to my distress, the whole left side suddenly stopped ringing.  (My theory: as

The Catalog is available in hard copy or as a PDF Download Download a PDF Catalog, or listen to the sound files For the first time in seven years, Kalimba Magic has printed a catalog.   Click through to find out what is special about this new catalog and how to get a hard copy or a soft copy catalog of your very own. In the past, I have used professional help with catalogs in terms of photography and design layout.  This time, I have done all the work for the catalog on my own.  While it has slowed me down – I haven’t produced a single book during the time

Sharing some of the sweet statements we got from folks in 2016 I don’t know exactly why I am doing this.  There may be an element of ego in reprinting my customer’s (happy) comments to me.  But there is another motive here: each of these statements has love and warmth and light in it, and it just seemed a shame to keep them all locked up.   Each of these people, in some way or other, has seen me at or near my best.  These comments help tell a part of the story that normally is never shared, and I feel it would be interesting for you to see them.

Each different mode is like a totally different instrument. Don’t you want to unlock that power? You can totally change the scale your kalimba is playing, not by doing anything hard such as retuning your kalimba, but just by starting and ending on a different note than you usually do.  Emphasizing a different note makes that the root note, and the whole system of whole steps and half steps shifts, and all of a sudden the kalimba is playing as if it were tuned to a totally different scale. How different can the scales be?   Here are my descriptions of each of the modes: Mode 1: happy.  Mode 2: dark,