How To Play

For centuries, kalimba players have grown their thumbnails long to help them play for hours without pain.  But what if you don’t have that kind of thumbnail?  Read and learn! Alaska piks are an easy pain free alternative… or have you tried super glue on your nails?

The most popular kalimba in the world right now is the 17-Note Kalimba in C, made by several brands in China. We don’t have the full “How to Play” page for this kalimba, but I can point you to our extensive collection of books and downloads.

Are you a beginner who wants to play western music?  This kalimba is a great place to start, and works well for kids as young as 6 years old, but is also a reasonable place for an adult to start.  There are also alternative tunings from around the world available for the 8-Note.

Pure magic, the New Age Sansula is a delight to play.  Perhaps the most beautiful sounding kalimba, and with nine notes it is not so complex…the challenge here is to get sonic diversity through alternative tunings, and we have lots of great tunings for the Sansula.

The 9-note student karimba – called “the original mbira” by Hugh Tracey – is related to the first metal tined kalimbas from the Zambezi Valley over 1000 years ago.  A great place to start, this karimba’s design has a rich centuries-old African tradition.

Do you want to play traditional African music?  The African-tuned karimba has a wide and deep repertoire of music from across the vast Zambezi Valley, and is thought to be closely related to the original mbira tuning from 1300 years ago. Get that African feeling!

This kalimba has top notch materials and craftmanship, it plays music as smooth and beautiful as the B9, but with a few more notes, this kalimba becomes much more musically capable. Exotic tunings available.

The Alto Kalimba is one of the most versatile kalimbas – there are over a dozen books and downloads available for it, and there are thousands of songs you can play on it, including traditional African music. When you are ready for the real deal, come to the alto kalimba.

The Treble is the original kalimba that was sent around the world by Hugh Tracey in the 1960s. Slightly smaller than the Alto but with two more tines, the Treble is favored by people with smaller hands or superior manual dexterity. The Chinese 17-Notes in C are copies of the Treble.