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a profusion of possible colors! A Box Lotus and a Regular Lotus Karimba Come with me for a moment, to stand behind Hugh Tracey, circa 1952. For years before he began selling his kalimbas, Dr. Tracey worked at perfecting a new kalimba invention, creating over 100 prototypes, experimenting with various design features. When he finally settled on what worked and sounded best for his Treble kalimba, he had really accomplished a tremendous feat. Hugh Tracey kalimbas still look almost exactly as they did in 1954, when he started selling them to the world, and many kalimba makers across the globe copy the Hugh Tracey Treble design. Hugh Tracey’s work is the standard by

And what books should I get for my 17-Note Kalimba? Click on image to download a PDF of these three tuning charts   When Hugh Tracey started making his 17-Note Treble kalimbas in South Africa in 1954, the instruments had one out of every three tines painted, on each side of the kalimba. These Treble kalimbas ended up with five painted tines, in the key of G, with the low note being B. Now, a new crop of 17-note kalimbas from China has surfaced under names such as Gecko, Donner, and Walter kalimbas. They are all in the key of C. So while looking exactly like the Treble Hugh Tracey

Kalimba is a tool for connecting, soul to soul Mark mesmerizes a cranky infant with loving kalimba vibes This holiday season, give the gift of kalimba music, from you to the people in your life. Play from the heart, and play the truth and emotion and love that you have within you for those around you. The kalimba seems to be a very simple instrument. You can control which tine you play and when you play it, and you can control the volume of each note… but it is not like a violin, a saxophone, a trumpet, a guitar, or a voice, where the musician can bend the note and exuberantly

Free Tablature for Alto Kalimba and 17-Note Kalimba in C Download the free tablature for the 17-Note Kalimba in C I write this blog post as a gift to the five people who have asked for the tablature. I made a video of this song a few months ago to demo the 17-Note Heart Kalimba in C, but I wrote the song about 15 years ago. Originally, it was called “Chorale,” and I wrote it originally on piano, as a love song for my sweetie, Deb. The first 16 measures were included in my first kalimba book “Kalimba Fundamentals for the Alto Kalimba” under the name “Chorale.” A longer version

All your holiday favorites, arranged just for your kalimba Click to Purchase the Easy Christmas PDF Download This collection of Christmas favorites has been arranged specifically for the 17-Note kalimba in C. I have been playing Christmas Carols on the kalimba for 20 years. Not only is it a fine way to learn your kalimba, working on songs you already know. It is also a fantastic way to cultivate feelings of joy and gratitude during the lead-up to the holiday season. It is also a great way to share joy with other people in your life. This 59-page PDF download with clickable links to MP3 files has tablature for 32 different

This tuning was invented to play with an F major hand pan B11 in Dajari-F Tuning I should have known better than to post a video of a kalimba in a strange new tuning, and then not also make that tuning available to everyone. Several folks have requested the Dajari-F B11 tuning, so here it is. The initial plan for this year was to make instructional downloads for each of six exotic B11 tunings, to demonstrate the breadth of music that is possible on this otherwise unassuming but beautiful kalimba… but then Christmas came knocking, and with it came the creation of four new books of Easy Christmas Carols… to

Of course, this is just a rule of thumb Shop for Kalimbas for Kids I often get asked “Hey, what kalimba should I get for my kids?”  My response is to say that it depends on how old they are. And the rule of thumb above is a good one. People love to think of their kids as more advanced than they actually are. Maybe what we parents do is to see our child’s potential rather than their actuality. I know for a fact that I was sometimes disadvantaged by my own parents’ excessive belief in my abilities, and I did get a lot of gifts that were, frankly, a

We actually have a lot of African music for kalimbas A Box Lotus and a Regular Lotus Karimba Last week, someone emailed me asking: “I’ve looked at a lot of your music, and I cannot find the African music! Is there any actual African music for the kalimba?” The answer is YES! Although admittedly, I do provide a lot of other types of music – Sansula music, folk tunes, Christmas songs, Elvis songs, nursery rhymes, New Age music… and it is easy to get lost. But there is plenty of African stuff here! ‘Way back around 10 years ago, I was embarrassed about how little I knew about African music, and how

Get Free Tablature for 17-Note Kalimba in C Click for free 4-page PDF tablature download for this song You may very well know that right now, the most popular kalimba video in the world is by Acoustic Trench, playing “I Can’t Help Falling in Love With You” (made most famous by Elvis Presley in 1961) on an alternatively-tuned 17-Note kalimba. Trench’s tuning made a bass scale, going from the center to the far left – and a treble scale, going from the center to the far right. He played melody on the right and accompaniment on the left. Well now – let’s just say that right now you are sitting