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… you can hear them in your head even though they were not played Archival Practice Tips Your ear is the best tool you have for progressing in music. While most people I know could not tell you why something in music is wrong, almost everyone will have a clue that something is wrong, because they hear it as sounding odd or incorrect. Rely upon your ear to guide you, and always ask: “Does this sound right?” When I play, the “ear” in my head is also at work in a different direction – I actually hear notes that I did not play. It is like my soul or my

…but you need to do more than just explore Archival Practice Tips Welcome to your kalimba.  Based on the tuning and the note layout of your instrument, your kalimba represents a whole continent of sounds and musical possibilities, and it is well worth exploring it in depth. When I started playing kalimba in 1986, there was no map to this continent.  There was no internet, and seemingly no information about the kalimba.  What did I do?  I explored my kalimba on my own, gradually learning more and more each day I played. Here’s a very valuable tip that can help you in your kalimba explorations. The short form of the tip

A download and some free tablature Click to download the full PDF tablature for “Ends on Blue” I admit it – I got carried away with my tip on the traditional mbira song “Kuzanga” arranged for the Alto kalimba.  That is a challenging piece, but I know at least one person who will rise to that challenge – hopefully many more. Now, let’s do something that might be of interest to just about everyone – easy music for the alto kalimba. The first place to start if you are playing the alto kalimba is the Alto Primer.  This book takes a very simple African riff and shows you about a

The glissando permits you to play a chord of three or four notes Shop for Kalimbas, enjoy 13% off with coupon code CAT13 Not all kalimbas are laid out in the same way, but a lot of kalimba makers follow the lead of Hugh Tracey in laying out the notes to require an alternating left-right pattern to go up or down the scale.  If you have an alternating note layout, two or three adjacent notes on one side of the kalimba will sound great together. This is a chord – at least three adjacent notes.  Easy! But how should one play three or more notes simultaneously on a kalimba?  

Here is tablature for “Kuzanga” on Bb Treble Kalimba Click to download the full PDF tablature for Kuzanga on Bb Treble Kalimba “Kuzanga” is a song for the mbira dzavadzimu, which is the instrument that accompanied the original, traditional African song.  I’ve been working on “Kuzanga” now for about six weeks on my mbira, and even though I have a long way to go, I can still feel myself getting better each day – it’s a wonderful feeling. While it is possible to play most of the “Kuzanga” variations on the Alto kalimba and the African karimba, the Bb Treble is much better for this song – the two extra

Here is the mbira song “Kuzanga,” translated onto the karimba – get the tablature for free! Click to download the full PDF tablature for Kuzanga on Karimba I have been learning to play “Kuzanga” on the mbira, a 24-note traditional African lamellaphone that in my mind represents one of the pinnacles of ancient African ingenuity and art.  I realized earlier today: it should be possible to play “Kuzanga” on the African karimba – and it is!  Included here, for your benefit, is tablature of “Kuzanga” for the karimba, for free!  Enjoy. When we transfer “Kuzanga” to the African karimba, with 17 notes (it actually has only 13 unique notes, as

The kalimba journey can reflect your inner spiritual journey Get the Best Ever 8-Note Book   Kalimba music tends, like the concept of Karma, to be cyclic. With Karma, what goes around, comes around, basically. Our job is to improve on what we put into the world, and what we get back will similarly improve. We can study and practice this our whole lives, and hopefully get better and better in all ways. When we are learning to play some new musical piece, our playing is plagued with stumbles and errors. And since kalimba music is generally cyclic, we will have repeating opportunities to improve on what we are studying.