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Mark Holdaway

Kalimba Gifts for Graduation

A kalimba is a great gift, especially for young graduates who could use a little nudge in the direction of wonder! Save 30% on Kalimbas Through June 5 2022 with Code KalimbaGrad When you get a gift for someone graduating school, you want something beautiful. You want something that opens doors into new futures, new possibilities, new worlds. You want something that they can grow into. You want something that is meaningful and open ended. You want to get something that your graduate can make their own. And you want to gift them something that also reflects your values. What values might you bring with your kalimba gift? Peace =

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Blog
Mark Holdaway

Kalimbas: Constructive, Educational Summer Fun for Kids 6 and Up!

This summer, instead of letting your kid’s cell phone instruct them in the way of video games… maybe it is time for your kid to get a kalimba and begin their kalimba journey? Playing kalimba exposes your child to new cultural and musical ideas. Playing kalimba promotes independence, as your kid goes off and figures it out. Playing kalimba calms your kid down, as they focus in on this sweet little musical instrument. Playing kalimba is good for the brain, promoting right – left collaboration and hemispheric balance. My rule of thumb for kalimbas and kids is: one tine per year of age. There is a lot of slush in

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Blog
Mark Holdaway

Do Something for Yourself: Try the Moon-10 Kalimba?

If you are tired of playing the same old kalimba stuff on the 17-Note Kalimbas, try exploring new worlds with the Moon-10. First off, the Moon-10 has great tines and mind-blowing special effects (the full-body wah wah). This kalimba tends to come in simplified pentatonic scales. This along with the innovative note layout make the Moon-10 great for improvising. And the diversity of tunings it comes in means you can dial in the types of music it will create: Phases of the Moon: Moon-10 Alternative Tunings This video shows two different tunings of Moon-10 Kalimba – F# NAF on the left and Silk Moon on the right. I don’t have

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Blog
Mark Holdaway

What is a “Celeste” Kalimba?

The “celeste” models are Hugh Tracey kalimbas mounted on a thin, tapered wooden block, instead of the resonant boxes that the standard Hugh Tracey kalimba models are mounted on. There are box-mounted traditional kalimbas. The one that I saw was a solid piece of wood that had been hollowed out from the end. But most traditional African kalimbas are a bunch of tines mounted on a solid piece of wood. So the celeste models are structurally more similar to traditional kalimbas than the common box kalimbas are. Essentially every Hugh Tracey kalimba comes in a box-mounted version and a celeste version. All celeste Hugh Tracey kalimbas have the same body

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Blog
Mark Holdaway

New Download and Book: “Blank Tablature and Tunings for Popular Kalimbas”

  This 8.5″ x 11″ book of blank tablature contains blank tablature and blank chord charts for six different types of kalimba, in two different painting schemes.  This is a great way for you to write down your kalimba musical ideas or compositions. Here is the table of contents for the book. The first 15 pages deal with showing you about the finer points of Kalimba Tablature and the two painting systems. The rest of the book is tablature and chord blanks for the various kalimba types… along with some very special allternative tuning suggestions for most of these kalimba types. This book is available as a hard copy from

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Blog
Mark Holdaway

New Instructional Download: “Visiting Africa on your 8-Note Kalimba”

This is a nice little introduction to the 8-Note Kalimba in a western, diatonic C tuning. This is not a traditional African tuning, but it is probably the most popular way to set up the 8-Note kalimba these days. And it turns out there is a lot of African music that you can play on this kalimba, even if it not a traditional setup. This short 12-page PDF booklet is a pretty descent intro to how to make music on this instrument, the history of the kalimba – and how to play some very nice African music on it. Live links to sound recordings accompany the tablature in this book.

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Blog
Mark Holdaway

Hard Copy of “Easter Hymns for 17-Note Kalimba in C”

The Easter Hymns for 17-Note Kalimba in C have been available as a digital download since 2019. Now, this collection of 12 hymns is available as a hard copy book… from Amazon! You can purchase the Easter Hymns book from Amazon for $12. If you are outside the USA, this may be the best way to get the book. Similarly, you can purchase the Easter Hymns from Kalimba Magic for $12. This book has Beginner (melody only) and Advanced (melody and chords or counterpoint) versions of 12 beloved Easter Hymns. The kalimba is a great instrument for devotional music, and it was a joy putting this collection together.   Easter Hymns

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Blog
Mark Holdaway

Secrets of Walking and Running While Playing Kalimba

Grow your health, coordination and chops using this great musical hack 6/8 Time is Great for Kalimba Music… and Great for Walking / Running Too! I walk and play kalimba virtually every day. It is part of my morning routine, and it is part of my mental and physical health maintenance. Sometimes, after I’ve been walking and playing and daydreaming for a while, I realize that I need to speed things up to get my heart beating faster for a better balanced physical workout. To put my body into high gear, I just change up the rhythm of the song I’ve been playing, very simply and smoothly, without even changing time

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Blog
Mark Holdaway

Stuck on How a Song in an eBook Should Sound? Listen to it!

All songs in our downloads and books come with sound files, and here’s exactly how to access them This is the “sound icon” from our ebooks. When you click on the sound icon in an ebook, you will hear a recording of that song.   This morning, as I was playing kalimba and walking along the Tanque Verde wash, I answered a call from a customer who had bought the “44 Beginner Songs” ebook for the 17-Note Kalimba in C. She was so excited about progressing with the kalimba, her first musical success ever! She could read the tablature… but she said she didn’t play any of the songs that

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