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They say you can only think of one thing at a time – kalimba requires you to think of two things at a time! When I was 10 years old, my father said “I’ll give you a dollar if you can go 10 seconds without thinking of a brown bear!”  I jumped up from the dinner table, went to stand in the corner, and started chanting “White bear! White bear!” and got a huge laugh from my whole family. But truth be told?  I was actually thinking of brown bears the entire time I was trying to fill my mind with images and words of white bears. Playing kalimba is

Structure grounds and binds you to a song or tradition. Play sets you free. Go to product page for “Kalimba Doctor Tuning” Most people who pick up a kalimba will have an experience rich in play. There is always a little tug of war going on between structured playing – learning what other people have done on the kalimba between the present and 1000 years before now, or figuring out your own song in a detailed manner, and free play – just playing what comes into your head, or more likely, what your thumbs decide to do. My best playing and my best experiences occur when I am able to

If playing kalimba is fun, you will want to do it more Archival Practice Tips There are many different ways to practice kalimba, and you should find the way that makes you happy.  Don’t worry about the “right” way, but do search for the way that is right for you. Everybody plays a bit differently, and everyone learns in different ways.  You do want a challenge so that you feel you are getting better, but you don’t often want something that is so challenging that it is not fun. I share some of the ways that I practice kalimba, and rate them by how fun I find them to be.

… 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