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Maurice White (of Earth, Wind & Fire fame) started playing the Hugh Tracey Kalimba in his signature tuning 50 years ago In ancient Africa there were dozens or even hundreds of great kalimba innovators, all lost to the dust of time. These ancestors we must honor, explicitly or implicitly, every time we pick up a kalimba. Two people of the modern era who have done the most to move the kalimba forward are Hugh Tracey and Maurice White. Hugh Tracey studied traditional African instruments extensively, and he also made the first commercial kalimbas to be marketed globally, starting in the 1950s. On this website, his name is well known. Maurice

The kalimba’s unique note layout really affects the music it makes Learn more about Kalimba Tablature A customer recently asked: “I am having a lot of trouble playing my kalimba. I took piano lessons as a child for three years and I think this is the trouble. Is there a tip to help me make sense of reading the kalimba music as opposed to reading piano music?” The kalimba and the piano are very different instruments! Two big differences between them are that the kalimba only has a small subset of the notes the piano has, and the notes on the kalimba are arranged in a way that is fundamentally different from

The “44 Beginner Songs” Book is a Printed, Paper Version of the Popular 44-Songs Download Click to Purchase the new “44 Beginner Songs” Book People have been asking me for a hard copy book for the newly popular 17-Note Kalimba in C – the new kalimbas that have been made in China over the last 18 months. These are sold under a variety of names, including Donner, Walter, Gecko, and Heart-17, but all of these are essentially the same instrument, with the same number of tines and the same note layout.  In other words, all of these kalimbas can use the same book. That book is “44 Beginner Songs for

Don’t take my word – listen, watch, and learn Phia and her Celeste Alto Kalimba “Phia” is Sophia Exiner from Melbourne, Australia, and she is really skilled at singing, songwriting, playing the kalimba, and live looping. (Looping is electronically repeating a short section of music, permitting a musician to accompany themselves.) Her kalimba of choice is a Hugh Tracey Celeste Alto. Unlike the standard Alto kalimba, which is mounted on a resonating box, the Celeste Alto is mounted on a flat board and has a flatter EQ curve and no natural “wah,” but it has the same notes as the standard Alto. Anyway, I am quite taken with Phia’s music. I

It is wonderful to see someone who really understands this challenging instrument! Get a Chromatic Treble Kalimba Limba Trip is the stage name and YouTube channel for Yohei Kisanuki, an eclectic and amazing player of electric bass and Chromatic Treble Kalimba in Kyoto, Japan. While a number of people have developed competence on the chromatic kalimba, Limba Trip is the most accomplished and most natural player of the Chromatic kalimba that I have seen. Yohei has approached the Chromatic kalimba as a fully chromatic instrument, capable of playing in any and all keys. As opposed to chromatic instruments, a diatonic kalimba is very forgiving and lets you make nice music even

The 17-Note Kalimba in C is exactly the same as the front of the Treble Chromatic Get a Chromatic Treble Kalimba One of the beautiful things about a typical kalimba is that it only has the “right notes.” Most kalimbas spell out a particular scale, and every note is a good note for expressing a certain range of music. The downside of that typical kalimba is that it cannot play music that requires chromatic notes (sharps and flats) outside of its particular key or scale. Enter the chromatic kalimba with its many tines and wide capabilities. In order to maintain the general simplicity of playing most kalimbas, the “naturals” are

These are made by Louise Sloman-Fuller, now retired from AMI (African Musical Instruments) in South Africa Click to go to Kalimba Accessories – scroll down to see the bag options   There are now several options out there for kalimba bags and kalimba cases. If you are looking for something really special, check out these quilted bags from Louise Fuller-Sloman. They are charming. I own two of them myself, and I am guessing there are a few of them that you would love too.     At Kalimba Magic we have around two dozen beautiful, handcrafted, padded and quilted kalimba bags in a variety of colors and sizes. I find

This is one magical tuning Click to download the 4-page tablature PDF The Hokema B11 Kalimba – also called the “Melody Kalimba” – has a lot of untapped potential. In its standard G major tuning, it does a lot of nice music. But so many other exotic tunings are also possible, and those exotic tunings have not really been explored at all – until now. Today we are taking another look at the exotic B11 tuning that I call “The Wizard.” Last summer when I created an instructional download for the B11 Wizard tuning, I did things in the wrong order. After the download came out, I wrote an enchanting

Classical – African – Americana – Spirituals – And more! Click to Purchase the new “33 Intermediate Songs” Download Learn to play kalimba like a pro, by learning from a pro – that’s me, Mark Holdaway! If you have been working your way through the “44 Beginner Songs” download, then “33 Intermediate Songs” is the next purchase to continue your progress. This 82-page single PDF download contains the kalimba tablature for all of the songs, and live links to enable you to download the sound recordings I have made to demonstrate each song. Says one recent happy customer: “I am very impressed with the quality of the ebook I just