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An unnamed customer asks:  “Am I right that I have to turn all of your books sideways to read the tablature?” Well… if I had intended you to read it that way, I probably would have printed the books that way! No, no no… the tablature runs UP the page, not left to right across the page as standard staff notation. OK… why does the tablature run up the page? I suppose the answer is that I had the courage to buck the trend of western civilization and western music notation. I struggled with this for months. In 2004 when I invented kalimba tablature, I resisted making this decision. Playing

Here is my tip for you: a 7-note pentatonic kalimba, such as the Small Mini-7, is a great instrument for a child to learn on. And if you get the Large Mini-7, you and your little one can duet together. @kalimbamagicMini-7 Kalimba, big or small, comes with great new booklet. ##kalimbatabs ##kalimbatutorial ##mini7kalimba♬ original sound – kalimbamagic The Big one is a good size for adult thumbs, while the Small one is perfect for children (lets just say: 5 yrs and up). They are tuned to the same notes, and can follow the same tablature in the book… but the Large one is tuned an octave lower than the Small

Kalimba Tablature can Express Essentially Any Music, and it isn’t that hard Learn More About Tablature   I get a lot of requests for numbers-based instruction from people who cannot read music. While I have created numbers-based materials, they are very limiting. The world of possibilities is huge, deep and broad, and the numbers-based instructional materials can only touch the surface. In order to achieve kalimba greatness, I suggest you move over to the graphical Kalimba Tablature. To see some of the advantages to this approach, read on, dear reader!   Many people believe they cannot handle reading music. I understand this. But they tend to also believe they need

The Mini-7 Pentatonic Kalimba, made by Magadi, is a great little kalimba for small hands. I have just finished a very thoughtful 32-page booklet to help you unlock the music of this kalimba. If you have a Mini-7 Kalimba, you might want to get our booklet! If you are outside the USA, you might want to get the ebook version to avoid slow and costly shipping. @kalimbamagicMini-7 Kalimba, big or small, comes with great new booklet. ##kalimbatabs ##kalimbatutorial ##mini7kalimba ♬ original sound – kalimbamagic To give you an idea of what the Mini-7 Kalimba book is about, take a look at these pages from it:   Each song or lesson

Dear Kalimba Magic: “Just wanted to reach out with a big ‘Thank You’, Mark, for making the kalimba accessible to me! “I originally purchased one of your kalimbas back in 2017 for my partner. She has a natural gift to pick up nearly any instrument and play it perfectly and she loved playing with the one I got her. I recently started poking around with that one and after purchasing a very cheap one on Amazon to make sure I wasn’t just momentarily infatuated, I purchased another one from you for myself along with the corresponding Middle Eastern Music e-book. I come from a very musically-gifted family but I’ve never

Here is a general history of how people notated kalimba music, roughly 1950 through 2004: @kalimbamagic##Kalimba ##kalimbatutorial ##kalimbatablature ##kalimbahistory♬ original sound – kalimbamagic Here is a quick guide to the kalimba tablature I invented in 2004: @kalimbamagicIntro to Kalimba Tablature. ##kalimba ##kalimbatutorial ##kalimbatabs ##kalimbamusic♬ original sound – kalimbamagic I have written like 60 instructional downloads and 30 hard copy books for various kalimbas, mostly based on my kalimba tablature. This little video gives a quick tour of some of the breadth and depth of the kalimba books I have created: @kalimbamagicI’ve written dozens of Kalimba Books for many types of Kalimba.##kalimbatutorial♬ original sound – kalimbamagic   How to Read and

And what about staff notation for a kalimba? Recently, Lilly wrote to Kalimba Magic: “I am experienced with reading standard staff musical notation, and I don’t really like the kalimba tablature, and I don’t understand why you use it. Can I just read staff notation with my kalimba? Please give me the main advantage to using tablature to notate kalimba music.” Yes, Lilly, I think there are some really big advantages to using kalimba tablature rather than staff notation. Consider kalimba tablature to be my chosen way of expressing my 33 years of kalimba-playing experience to you. It is a doorway to my kalimba-playing thought process.  First, it’s good to

Click, Save, Print, and Fill in Your Own Notes Kalimba Tablature is generalizable to any kalimba, and is powerful enough to cover almost any music   Playing kalimba is such a liberating activity! You seemingly have nothing but good choices in front of you. You can really cut loose and do whatever you want. Often, it works very well, because most kalimba tunings make success highly probable. And it’s really fun to just let things flow. You can also make great progress on the instrument by developing a new awareness – paying careful attention to something you love that you just came up with while playing, and then playing it again and

Using the universal language of tine painting, Your 15-Note Alto or 17-Note Kalimba in C can read 8-Note Tablature! Click to download the Greensleeves tablature in PDF Two years ago, I made a video demonstration of my kalimba tablature (which I originally created in 2004 to facilitate learning and sharing music on kalimba), playing Greensleeves on the 8-Note kalimba. The illustration at the top of this article is from that video. Three of the kalimba’s tines were painted red, and the three corresponding columns in the tablature were also colored red – the tablature is a replica of the kalimba, and each column represents a different tine. What if you