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This one plays just as nicely as it did in… oh, 1968? Yes, Virginia, old kalimbas can be made new again! In the 1960s, the Hugh Tracey Treble kalimba was “the thing.” It was new, it was fun, it sounded great. Hugh Tracey’s sons, Andrew and Paul, both learned to play and love the Treble kalimba. In fact, while Hugh was working on creating this hybrid instrument in Africa before anyone in the world was making commercial kalimbas, he sent Paul one of his first prototype kalimbas while Paul was at boarding school back in England. Hugh admonished Paul not to share this kalimba with anyone. It was top secret.

Great jamming and a whirlwind tour of Kalimba Magic headquarters Karl Von Packal is the host of Car Sessions with Karl, a Youtube phenomenon. Mark is invited by Karl to participate in some jamming in Karl’s vehicle, where Karl has done the same with a variety of other interesting musical monsters, including Mike Ankomeus, Mark’s band mate and employee. Mark also takes us on a quick tour of Kalimba Magic’s humble headquarters, and talks a bit about the kalimba’s story and culture (see the Black History month presentation in this newsletter for much more on this). We are treated with clips of the two musicians improvising some great music while

The 66 Songs Download has been replaced with user friendly 44-Beginners-Songs and 33-Intermediate-Songs Get the Easy-to-Use 44 Song Download The 44 songs in the download were taken from various Kalimba Magic collections and modified for use with the 17-Note “Treble” Kalimba in the key of C, which is sold under a great many brand names at this time – Donner, Walter, Heart-17, and Gecko, among others.  The collections that went into this download include: African American Spirituals, traditional African karimba tunes, classical pieces, folk and pop music, Americana and patriotic, and some children’s songs. These songs are rated by difficulty, with songs in each category between 1 and 5.  

This is one magical tuning Get yourself a B11 Kalimba today! The Hokema B11 Kalimba – also called the “Melody Kalimba” – has a lot of untapped potential. In its standard G major tuning, it does a lot of nice music. But so many other exotic tunings are also possible, and the exotic tunings have not really been explored at all – until now. Today we are looking at the exotic B11 tuning that I call “The Wizard.”  An exotic tuning can take a kalimba to a new and magical place, transforming the music it plays and the experience you have with it. At Kalimba Magic laboratories, we took all

The Fabric of a simple “Three against Two” pattern is strong enough to be the foundation of a song What does “John Huffington” have to do with the classic African three-against-two multi-rhythm? I don’t know a John Huffington, but here’s his name, embodied in this rhythmic riff when I play it on the Hugh Tracey Alto Kalimba. When I fall into the groove of this pattern, I hear my kalimba saying  the name “John Huffington.” The three against two pattern requires that one thumb play one thing (three notes) in the same space as the other thumb is playing something else (two notes). And repeat. You can play this sort

Buy the Download First I have a few customers who purchase mainly downloads from Kalimba Magic. One wants to get the music because he is interested in using it in his video work. Another just likes to hear what new music is available for the kalimba. But there is a growing group of people who see the downloads as a collection of music that is representative of what a particular kalimba style or tuning has to offer.  As such, the download is a key that opens some of the secrets that the kalimba has to offer.   Several first-time customers purchase one or more instructional downloads first. A few days later,

This exciting presentation takes you on a quick trip through the kalimba’s history from its beginnings to present day. Download the Free PDF on Kalimba History   “The Kalimba, its African History, and Black Pride” is a quick, enjoyable vignette, almost a snapshot, of all the moving parts of the the kalimba’s story. It will engage you and take you on a lively romp that covers ancient and contemporary music, science, and the annals of human history. It is so much fun that you will hardly know how much you’ve just absorbed. It tells, in entertaining graphic novel style, about early human ingenuity and the evolution of musical instruments, the

True confessions of an old musical dog learning new tricks All my life I’ve been a musician. My family sang together, I played and loved piano (even piano lessons), sang in all kinds of groups growing up, and played recorder, pennywhistle, and a bit of guitar. I mostly sing and play pennywhistle these days. Classical and folk, and world music were and are my stomping grounds. Reading music was always the key to the door into the musical world. Never a brilliant music reader, I made my way through it and very happily discovered new melodies. In my adult life reading music has not been a focus for me, rather

Very economical, high quality, Great for Students, plays great music Visit the 10-Note Heart Kalimba Product Page Kalimba Magic is known for selling some of the best kalimbas in the world, but we have been a bit sparse in the student kalimba department. That all changes right now. We have long known that sooner or later, the Chinese would start manufacturing kalimbas, and, eventually, good ones. That day has arrived, and rather than stick its head in the sand, Kalimba Magic is embracing these new Chinese-made kalimbas – in part because they perfectly fill our gap of entry-level instruments in the Kalimba Magic catalog, and in part because these are really nice