News and Announcements

The 21-Note Kalimba can use all the 17-Note/C Books. Several Chinese companies have been making pretty good 17-note kalimbas lately. They are roughly copies of the Hugh Tracey Treble Kalimba, but are tuned to the key of C. I paint my 17-Note Kalimbas in C differently than suggested by the Chinese, so that the kalimba is consistent with my library of tablature. More recently, there have been some 21-Note Kalimbas made. This post shows you how at least some of these kalimbas are tuned, and how you might paint them so that you can use Kalimba Magic materials to learn to play.   How to Tune and Paint a 21-Note

As with most good things, this is a work in progress. Kalimba Magic is now a modern wordpress web site. As such it is (theoretically) much easier for me to maintain and (presumably) much easier for the user to navigate. That said, I know there are a great number of problems. There is still 5-year-old content that I need to update, and there are a lot of pages that have sloppy formatting. Perhaps the biggest loss is the 2005 – 2015 archival Kalimba Tips and Kalimba Newsletter Articles. That old content stuck around for the last five years, but now it is gone. If there is a particular post of

The “Golden Moon” Moon-10 Tuning – gives you a lot of music on a very simple instrument. You can purchase the Moon-10 Kalimba in this “Golden Moon” tuning, or you can retune your Moon-10 yourself! The Golden Moon tuning is significant in that the low note is not the root note or key note. The root note is F, and the lowest note is C. This makes a great many songs possible. Demonstration of what makes the Golden Moon Tuning so capable. The Golden Moon ebook is a 106 page PDF, covering the standard introduction to the Moon-10, special playing techniques and strategies, plus a section with 26 general songs,

If you aren’t happy with the quality of your 17-Note Kalimba in C, try this one. The German-made Hokema Sansulas and Kalimbas have long been loved for their superb sound and quality… but the Hokema instruments were small, with 9 or 11 tines. They played beautiful, dreamy music, but were limited to play simple music. An introduction to the B17 kalimba, and why it is so good. Now, the B17 is available – 17 top quality tines mounted on a sturdy wood body. It is not the loudest kalimba, but all the notes have an even sound, and the notes sustain for several seconds. And while many 17-Note kalimbas have

Learn to Fly Through the Chords in Blue Moon Tuning. You cannot play the song “Blue Moon” on the “Blue Moon Tuned Moon-10 Kalimba” – in fact, there are not a lot of “standard songs” this C minor pentatonic tuning will play. However, if you want to jam and improvise and be cool and play the blues, this is a great kalimba and tuning for you! You can purchase the Moon-10 Kalimba in this “Blue Moon” tuning, or you can retune your Moon-10 yourself! Jamming on Blue Moon Tuning with Guitar and Bass. You can purchase the Moon-10 Kalimba in this “Blue Moon” tuning, or you can retune your Moon-10

We have created eight song books for 17/C Kalimba – at last, the intro method book to help it all make sense! Order your Book: Intro to 17-Note Kalimba in C!   If you play the 17-Note Kalimba in C, this is the book you’ve been waiting for. It will help you chart your course through the kalimba waters in the months and years to come. It shows you all the basics, and shares links for more information about a number of topics. It has clear and simple photographs and illustrations to show you the basic playing techniques, and shows you in clear kalimba tablature examples of some of the

This one looks and sounds bright and shiny! Get Your Bamboo 17-Note Kalimba Today!   I am particularly proud of the design of this kalimba. Ecologically sustainable bamboo, with a “KALIMBAMAGIC” swirl of motion resonating from the sound hole. My wife, artist Su Washington, and I, made this design. “KALIMBAMAGIC” on the front is meaningful for two reasons. First, it is a call to you to create your own kalimba magic every time you pick up this kalimba. And second, this is a kalimba that I am happy to put my name on The Kalimba Magic Bamboo 17-Note Kalimba OK, basically this is the same kalimba that has been coming

Each tuning a different flavor, capable of its own music. The Moon-10 Kalimba is a fantastic platform for creating music. It has a clear piercing tone, great special effects, and is not difficult to get your head around… it tilts the odds toward success. The standard C Major Pentatonic tuning is fun, but realistically, it only scratches the surface of this instrument’s possibilities. To span this instrument’s potential, we need to sample some of the different possible tunings. Here are six alternative tunings you can put on your Moon-10 kalimba yourself. Explore the breadth of Moono-10 Tunings with me! When you order a Moon-10 kalimba from Kalimba Magic, we give

This C Diatonic “Silver Moon” Tuning makes the Moon-10 capable of playing a lot of music Get the “Silver Moon” eBook for the Moon-10 Kalimba   While the standard C Pentatonic Tuning of the Moon-10 kalimba is a great place to go to be wild and free, and a great place to go to jam… if you want to play more songs, you might consider going for the C Diatonic, or “Silver Moon” tuning. Check out the video… real music with just 10 notes! The “Silver Moon” tuning of the Moon-10 Kalimba can play a lot of music. You can purchase the Moon-10 Kalimba in this “Silver Moon” tuning, or