Tips

This electronic recording breaks the song into small pieces and starts slow Learn More About 4-phrase Mbira Music One of the best ways to learn to play is by playing with someone else. If you don’t actually have someone else to who knows the song to play along with, another way is to play along with a recording of the song you are trying to learn. Here we present something new in terms of Kalimba Magic instructional materials – the mbira song “Kuzanga” played progressively – meaning at first very slowly and speeding up gradually to help in learning to play. Also, the song is broken up into sections, which

I mark key root notes with different colors – and this works on other instruments too! Archival Practice Tips The mbira dzavadzimu is one of the pinnacles of the traditional African lamellaphones (thumb pianos), and its music is rich and sweet.  I consider the mbira and its music to be the highest intellectual wonder of ancient Africa.  And we can learn to play this venerable music today in our modern world. I have a confession to make: while I easily picked up the kalimba and taught myself to play, I have had a very difficult time with the mbira.  I bought my first mbira more than 15 years ago, and

20 Minutes a Day – You can make this a spiritual practice Archival Practice Tips You can spend 20 minutes a day doing any one particular activity, and you will get better at it.  If you did yoga for 20 minutes a day, your strength, flexibility, and balance would improve.  If you ran for 20 minutes a day, your cardiovascular function and physical stamina would improve.  If you meditated for 20 minutes a day, your level of insight and your outlook would probably improve. What if you played kalimba for 20 minutes a day, every day? I myself sometimes have difficulty finding the time to play kalimba every day, but

Do you really need some totally different tuning? We can probably invent it Go to product page for “Kalimba Doctor Tuning” Many people are not looking for anything in specific – they will go for a particular kalimba or tuning because it makes cool music that resonates with them.   I think chances are good that these people will find something that tickles them among the tunings I have presented. Some people have very specific needs.  They might require a sansula in a particular key so that it will work with other instruments playing a song in that key, or to accompany singing a particular song in that key.  Inventing a

Following Kalimba Magic’s lead in the Sansula Tuning Movement, other tuning innovation is happening Peter Hokema, Sansula Inventor The people at Hokema have also been bringing forth sansula tuning alternatives. They have an app for the iphone that will help you experiment with your own sansula tunings, permitting you to retune, within realistic limits – that is, any tuning you create on the iphone will be possible to create on your sansula. App for Inventing Sansula Tunings Peter Hokema (in photo) has also invented sansula tunings. You can find those tunings at the Hokema site. Hokema’s Sansula Tuning Page

Go to product page for “Kalimba Doctor Tuning” The C minor tuning is a straight minor pentatonic scale.  It has a little more force and a little less mystery than the standard A minor Ake Bono tuning. I don’t have any music written out for the C minor Sansula tuning, but thought I would let you know about the tuning in case it is exactly what you need.  Eventually it will be exactly what someone needs.  Enjoy the video.

From the C Major Sansula Download C Major Sansula Download The C Major Sansula Tuning is one of my favorites.  It is happy and uplifting and powerful. The tablature here is from the C Major Download, which has a lot to offer.   To me, it is absolutely stunning that such simple right and left thumb patterns combine and make music.  This is the sort of music you can space out on for minutes on end.                  

This funky-bluesy tuning has a free instructional download Click to download Bluesy E Sansula instructional PDF I was playing kalimba at an independent living facility here in Tucson, and the family of one of the residents was there enjoying the music.  After about five or six songs that were happy, light and beautiful, one of the visitors said “Play something ugly!”  Well, I could not. I suspect that what he was asking for was something less of a sweet delight and more gritty, bluesy, down and dirty. The Bluesy E sansula tuning was created with that idea in mind.  The image here is a page from the free “Bluesy E

This is an enchanting middle-eastern style tuning Even though the  Morocco E sansula tuning is one that I haven’t explored very much,  I actually have two instruments set up in this tuning!  I play around with this tuning because it is fun.  Morocco E tuning sounds quite serious, which is why I love it so much. Again, even if you have no interest in ever getting a sansula, look at the patterns in the tablature here and learn, as this stuff is applicable to any kalimba. Lesson 1: Lopsided phrase.   Measures 1-3 (on the left) are all cut from the same cloth, but measure 4 is totally different.  Measures 1-3