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Mark Holdaway

Learn to Play “I Can’t Help Falling in Love With You” on Kalimba

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

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Blog
Mark Holdaway

Learn to Play the Elvis Presley hit “Love Me Tender” on Kalimba

Get Free Tablature, Learn from the Video A Box Lotus and a Regular Lotus Karimba A Kalimba Magic customer recently expressed the desire to play the eternally popular “Love Me Tender” on their 17-Note Kalimba in C, and the result is this blog post and free tablature for everyone to learn it. The 17-Note C Kalimba tablature is also usable with a 15-Note ALTO kalimba, and if you have Alto kalimba tablature, you can use it for your 17-Note in C – just be aware that the note names will be shifted by a 4th. What’s cool about this post is that we break the music down into three versions (on

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Blog
Mark Holdaway

Exotic B11 Tunings Overview

We have four tunings out now – let’s pause and consider A Box Lotus and a Regular Lotus Karimba The B11 is a really cool kalimba concept. Even though it has only two more notes than the Sansula on which it was modeled, it can go to many, many more places, musically, emotionally, and vibrationally. Just as the Sansula does, the B11 naturally leads you down pleasing avenues of discovery. The lower notes work together one way, the upper notes work together another way, and the upper and lower notes can dance together in many ways. But the arrangement of those notes – the exact order in which they are laid

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Mark Holdaway

The Secret Origins of the Mbira, I

Legends help us truly feel the origins of instruments and music Where do the Mbira and the Karimba come from? It’s easy to say – Zimbabwe. It’s even easier to follow up with – somewhere in Africa. The Zambezi valley. Or, maybe – who knows? Versions of striking metal on wood could perhaps be found anywhere, really. People always find a good excuse and a good way of making music. Why is the history so important? Maybe it isn’t, true. But the legends are very significant, because they tell us about the self-understanding of the people who made them: no musical instrument comes to us without reason, purpose, and style,

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Mark Holdaway

Playing the Sansula 2.0 – Brand New Download

This is the download you’ve been waiting for Get your “Playing the Sansula 2.0” Download The sansula is a wonderful, mysterious contradiction. Whatever you play on the sansula sounds great…and the sansula also has a limited capability. This download goes below the sweet, fluffy outer layer of the sansula’s character and gives you the understandings needed to really work the instrument’s potential, resulting in a lot more joy and music! Included in the ebook: the essential chord progression and melodies of the sansula in standard tuning; play along with surprisingly diverse chord progressions; accompanying another instrument; and alternative tunings – all these give you and your sansula a much wider scope of

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Blog
Mark Holdaway

Introducing The B11 Sansula

11 notes (in any of the exotic B11 tunings), mounted on a sansula resonating body Get your B11 Sansula Today! People have literally been dreaming about this instrument for over 10 years, and now it is here. The Sansula, with its 9 charmingly exotic, crystal-clear notes, was an instant hit, but people wanted more – more notes and more musical possibilities. I have heard dozens of people express their wish for a “bigger sansula” and today that instrument is here. Hokema (its creator) calls it the Melody Sansula, but I call it the B11 Sansula. I think my name tells more about this instrument.   The B11 Sansula is built on a

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Mark Holdaway

My Neighbor’s Dog Loves Kalimba

Well… he recognizes me by my kalimba playing A woman was walking her big black dog over to the fence where Gus is likely to greet neighbors and other dogs. I was playing kalimba on my morning walk as I approached. At first, Gus – a very friendly white dog with black spots – trotted over to great the neighbor dog, but then he cocked his head and raised an ear, as if he was being directed for a movie – and he ran the other way. At first I didn’t get it – but then we stopped near the front gate and rolled over on his back, waiting for

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Blog
Mark Holdaway

KTabS (Kalimba Tablature Software) Works in Windows 10!

You have to run it in compatibility mode Do you ever wonder how I create kalimba tablature? Those detailed, elongated maps of the kalimba with note symbols dancing on the tines? I use the Windows program KTabS – the Kalimba Tablature Software. This program changed my life, my productivity, and how the rest of the world learns and creates new kalimba music too! KTabS is an old program, and for the last few years, the KTabS website indicated the program would not run on the most current Windows operating systems. But the big news today: I heard from the creators and owners of KTabS, Randy and Sharon Eaton, that KTabS

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Blog
Mark Holdaway

New Exotic B11 Tuning: The Four WInds

This one plays in four different scales, without retuning a single note Get yourself a B11 Kalimba today! I love to fall in love. Who doesn’t? Yes, it is a bit chaotic, and your plans might go out the window, but the blissful feeling of falling in love? Of discovering and sharing each’s inner secrets? That is why I devote myself to exploring new exotic tunings on the various kalimbas – because each new tuning is an opportunity to fall in love. I can’t really tell which kalimba or tuning I will fall in love with, but I know it when it happens. All of a sudden, I understand, and

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