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After playing for 40+ years, Cornelius Duncan has jumped to the top! Cornelius Duncan has been playing his Hugh Tracey Alto kalimba in this “Duncan tuning” for most of his life. But he did not invent this tuning – rather, it came from his brother, Phillip Allen Duncan. A stunning YouTube video of Cornelius Duncan playing his special-tuned Hugh Tracey Alto kalimba has had just 2000 views over its 7-year life. Cornelius’ music honors legendary 1960s jazz saxophonist John Coltrane by playing a song that reflects Coltraine’s song, “A Love Supreme.” The song, called “A Kalimba Supreme” is serious and meditative, showing the master kalimba player offering his strands of

Mark can point you to many helpful resources A Box Lotus and a Regular Lotus Karimba  Thank you for connecting with Kalimba Magic.   I am Mark Holdaway, founder and director of Kalimba Magic. I am dedicated to teaching the world to play this wonderful little instrument. You will find all sorts of useful posts coming through the Kalimba Magic blogs and Facebook page, including playing and performance tips, interviews with players, information about new kalimbas or kalimba books, inspirational tidbits, and free instructional material and tablature.   What else do you need to know right now? Let me guess.   Here are some particularly useful pages for the beginning

Tunings, Books, eBooks, and Kalimbas   The simple 9-Note Sansula, or Hokema B9, has been a spectacular, emotive instrument that people have loved for almost 20 years. Now it’s time to move up to the B11. While the Sansula is charming and beautiful, there are precious few songs you can play on it. The B11 has another name – the “Melody”. That is because it lends itself to making melodies with simple accompaniment, In other words, if you seem to be at a dead end with the Sansula, you might want to check out the B11, because there is so much more music you can do with it! Exploring the

From my experiences in the past One kalimba associate asks: “How do I choose the songs to play at my kalimba performance?” Well, you want songs that connect with meaning and significance to you… and also to your audience. Even though your kalimba is probably not a traditional African instrument, I ask you to consider it nonetheless as a sacred instrument, capable of touching people, moving people, healing people, and helping people be their best. Of course, that means both the musician and the audience. Seemingly a tall order, but the magical kalimba is suited for it. And the songs you choose can play into this narrative.   You can

Earlier posts help you prepare. This post deals with the day of performance. When you are playing a kalimba performance, the most important thing is to have a good time. If you are happy and having fun, it will show. The audience will see you, really see you, and this gives a huge opening for the music. So, the big advice is that the day of your kalimba performance should mostly lead up to you being relaxed and having fun. I like to run through all of the songs I will be performing. Sometimes, like if I am performing on a shipping day, I will have to work and won’t

Exploring Chords for Accompanying the Sansula in Standard Tuning Get yourself a sansula today A main part of the philosophy of western musical instruments is to provide as many sonic possibilities as possible – hence the piano keyboard, with seven octaves of fully chromatic notes. A main part of the philosophy of the kalimba is that it has exactly the notes it needs to create a particular scale or a particular song. Every note on a kalimba is important and useful. A particular kalimba’s scale, or tuning, will span a particular “music space” which contains the musical possibilities of that scale. And there are “way many” music spaces and there

30 Years of Kalimba Performance Experience Might Assist You on Your Kalimba Path Everyone has their own learning style, from totally alone wandering in the wilderness, to working with a book, to a full teacher-student relationship. And no matter what our personal style is, good tips from a veteran along the way can be of monumental importance. Being a great kalimba performer stems directly from being a great kalimba player. We may be deep into our own learning journey, and a few good words of advice could be very very welcome. And if we are starting out then how great of a gift is it to get a brief guide to

The notes of a song don’t always stick to standard lengths. Here’s how we indicate the unusual notes in tablature. The standard types of notes last 1 beat, or 2 beats, or 4 beats… or going the other way, 1/2 beat, or 1/4 beat, or 1/8 beat. What if you want to play a note that lasts some other length, like three beats, or 3/4 of a beat? There are two symbols in the standard notation system – dots and ties – that are used to modify the length of the basic note types to give you a note that lasts other lengths. In this post we elaborate on how longer

Most kalimbas struggle to play their high notes clearly. Learn various ways of adjusting tines to improve their sound. Fixing a buzzing tine is one way to make tines sound better. Click here to learn how. We all want all of our kalimba’s notes to sound strong and hearty and resonant. But on most kalimbas, the highest notes can have a serious lack of resonance. There are physical limitations to the range of notes a kalimba can play. If you try to lengthen your lowest, longest tine, it will play a lower note – but as you go lower, the note will not sound as good, because you are trying