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The man who created the modern kalimba movement also worked to preserve traditional African music Search the ILAM Music Archive of Hugh Tracey’s Recordings While Hugh Tracey is best known for the Hugh Tracey kalimba, I believe his most important work was the assemblage of 35,000 field recordings he made through the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s of traditional music across sub-Saharan Africa. These recordings captured music across Africa just before much of the traditional music was eclipsed and even erased by modern European influences such as the western scale, choral church music, and western popular music, which were propagated by radio and recordings.  Today, Tracey’s historical recordings are alive and

This 72-page book contains the music to about 30 traditional karimba tunes Click to purchase 30 Trad. Karimba Book It is my feeling that “About 30 Traditional Kalimba Songs…” is the most significant kalimba book I have written to date. This book is written from the point of view that the karimba is a living relic; I believe that the kalimbas that were played over a millenium ago had very similar note layouts to the lower half of the two-tiered modern karimba. This means that the music in this collection of wonderful traditional tunes could be very similar to the music that people in Africa played more than 1000 years in

Free Tablature for Alto, Treble and G Chromatic Kalimbas Jesu can be played on Alto, Treble, Bb Treble, D Treble, or Chromatic Kalimbas. The Hugh Tracey kalimba is the work of a lifetime. From 1920 to 1954, musicologist and historian Hugh Tracey honed his experience, appreciation and understanding of African music and musical instruments. Then, in an endeavor to create a new kalimba and one that would be able to appeal to western ears, he built over 100 prototype instruments of various designs which integrated aspects of several traditional kalimbas, from about 1950 to 1954. When he felt he had perfected his design, the Treble kalimba was born, and it

One single musical idea can be stretched so far… Imagine the left panel represents a song’s basic part. When you are tired with repeating that, go to a variation, which has the same essential shape as the basic part, with some extra frills, like what you see in the center panel. When you are comfortable doing these, consider building on them still more, as in the right panel. There are essentially infinite variations possible. When I play kalimba by myself, I usually go pretty deep. It’s like meditation, only more playful. After playing for 20 or 30 minutes, I am usually in a very peaceful state. I seem to look

Get your 2B kalimba while they last Left to right: 2B/14L, 2B/14, 2B/9B, and a pair of 2B/9 kalimbas “I received my 2B/9 Kalimba several days ago and it is truly a magical little instrument… I LOVE it!  I love the A/C tuning too…great choice.  I am drawn to picking it up frequently and picking out random tunes.  I don’t really now what I’m doing, but it always sounds great!”     –  Marcy, 2016  “The 2B kalimba arrived today.  What a dear instrument!  I just adore it”      –  Vickie, 2016   In the world today, I am guessing there are hundreds or even thousands of people who are making

Leslee Morrison’s Second Kalimba Has Opened a New World of Possibilities Leslee’s pentatonic kalimbas Acquiring a second kalimba in a different tuning is almost like stepping into the exciting realm of kalimba for the first time – everything seems so fresh and new.   However, unlike the first time, I come to the second kalimba with an established set of rhythms and thumb patterns I learned on the first kalimba.  These patterns do transfer to the second kalimba, and it feels like I am flying.   I got my first kalimba – a Hugh Tracey Box Pentatonic kalimba – from Mark at Kalimba Magic a few years ago. I had

It was good enough for Jimi Not many know that Jimi Hendrix was an excellent kalimba player Did Jimi Hendrix really play kalimba?  Well, no, Jimi Hendrix didn’t do anything with the kalimba as far as I know.  I’m sure one was put into his hands though, as the kalimba was exploding in popularity at the same time Jimi Hendrix was. This art work is derived from the famous photograph of Jimi kneeling in front of his guitar as he is poised to light it on fire for the first time in public.  In that photo, Jimi is looking down at his hands, and his hands look like he is

Scales and Chords for One-Sided 8-Note Kalimbas Left: ergonomic setup for individual with the use of their left hand. Right: ergonomic setup for right handed person. I have known several people who only have the use of one hand, and two of them play kalimba. Kalimba Magic offers a special one-sided kalimba, either in a left handed or a right handed setup. It seems you would need both the left and right hands to simulate the full kalimba experience. The theory is that the kalimba evolved from huge log xylophones, made from actual logs, which were played by at least two people, one on each side, playing interweaving parts. The