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I learned so much from dealing with a recently broken thumb nail Click to go to Alaska Pik product page Don’t you hate it when people write about an experience as if they have had it, when they haven’t? OK, that was me last month, but I got religion in recent weeks. Last month I wrote a blog post on how to fine tune your Alaska Piks to your thumb. This month I broke a thumb nail, but I was obliged to play kalimba anyway… Let’s just say I now have a whole lot more useful information on using Alaska Piks with the kalimba. And lots of illustrations! So, if you

This technique can get you a lower bass note to better support the music Making a chord is simple on a diatonic kalimba: Pick the note you want the chord to be based on – let’s say C – and then play that note and the next two shorter tines on the same side of the kalimba. Those three tines will make a triad with the notes 1 – 3 – 5. Will it be major or minor, or even diminished? It depends on which key you are in and what note you started on – but it will always be a beautiful chord. (“Diatonic” means your kalimba plays only

Its amazing music puts you in the headspace of Ancient Africa One of the most important things I can say about the kalimba (including the karimba and mbira) is that the understanding of how to play these instruments comes to dwell in my thumbs, while the interpretation of the music into phrases or pulses takes place in my ear or my head. The brain’s frontal cortex is where we slowly puzzle out the music when we’re first starting to learn it.  But once we get rolling, it is a different, more primitive part of the brain that is making the music happen – I am guessing it is the cerebellum, which

You can totally learn how to play this song! Download tablature PDF for “Karimba Walk” One of my good habits is to walk about 2 miles every morning while I play kalimba. This is time by myself, with the sky above me and the earth below me. It is time with a kalimba in my hands and a song in my heart. It is an essential element of my mental, physical, and spiritual wellness. Most mornings, I stick with one song for most or all of the walk. I find the song deepens as my walk proceeds. On good mornings, I get an entire new song. And sometimes, I record

44 Beginner Songs Replaces Clunky 66-Song Download Click to Purchase the new “44 Beginner Songs” Download At the end of last summer, Amazon sales of inexpensive Chinese-made 17-Note kalimbas tuned to the key of C started to spike. These kalimbas were delivered to people with either a short instructional manual in Chinese, or no instructions at all. Peeved customers who bought from Amazon found me, vented their frustrations, and begged me for an English version of the short Chinese manual. Of course, I saw a great opportunity. I shot from the hip and made a “primitive” Zip file download for the 17-Note in C from an earlier version of “66 Songs” for a

Careful, precise, and planned – or Wild, Free, In-the-moment – both are important Orderly and planned…. or wild and free? How about BOTH? When I’m asked how I learned kalimba, I tell this story: while I had known what a kalimba was since the age of two, I only discovered how wonderful kalimba music could be when I was 24 and I witnessed an amazing player close up. I immediately went out and bought a kalimba, and then I wandered alone in the wilderness for 10 years, finding my own way. In that wandering, I found that my path branched in two opposing directions. On one, I tried to learn songs

If you don’t have much thumb nail, these inexpensive piks can help Click to go to Alaska Pik product page When I would teach large kalimba classes in the past, one of the supplies I had to bring with me was the Alaska Pik. If you have no thumb nails, plucking the kalimba’s metal tines can be painful. Eventually, novice players will either grow their thumb nails or develop calluses on the playing surface of their thumbs. Until then, or in emergencies, the Alaska pik can be a life saver! Ken Purcell, the inventor of Alaska piks, was vacationing in Alaska when he got the idea for his PVC guitar

Learn how to play guitar chords with any sansula – and get a taste of the rules of chorded improvisation Get yourself a sansula today My friend Andrea Eckardt and I are back with another exotic Sansula tuning, showing the world just how easy it is for a Sansula and a guitar to make great music together. The Sansula is made by Hokema in Germany. The tines of this exotic kalimba make a crystal-clear sound, amplified by the Sansula’s oval-frame drum body. Today we are going take a very close look at how the guitar accompanies the Sansula; I dissect our improvisation “blow by blow,” and share six rules that

The subtle brilliance of Hugh Tracey’s Treble Kalimba Tuning The Hugh Tracey Treble Kalimba has some of the most silvery tones When Hugh Tracey started making the Treble kalimba with five painted tines and 17 notes  in 1954, it was the very first commercial kalimba. The Treble has a rich history, though the instrument’s setup is somewhat problematic. On most modern kalimbas, the “key note” or “root note” is the lowest note on the instrument and this has great advantages. The Treble kalimba, however, is in the key of G but is missing that low G and A. It actually starts on B, the 3rd of the scale. It can take