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This old, old instrument lives on and can play lots of 17-Note karimba music 9-Note Student Karimbas The “student karimba” is my own invention – or rather, it is my re-invention.  I came up with the name, but Andrew Tracey calls it the “kalimba core” as well as the “original mbira”.  I like to call it “the kalimba that time left behind.” While this little instrument is far from popular these days, it was mentioned in the first scholarly article on the kalimba written in 1950 by missionary A.M. Jones.  I feel this simple instrument’s pattern is truly important because of where it stands in the history of all thumb

Syncopation, variations, tweaks and trills The Lotus-tuned karimba was created by the inventive recording artist SaReGaMa.  He once received an out-of-tune African-tuned karimba as a gift.  Rather than simply tuning it up, SaReGaMa instead used this as an opportunity to invent several of his own tunings and create music that worked with each tuning.  The Lotus tuning is the one he used for a song that he improvised one night in an effort to get his baby daughter, Lotus, to go to sleep.  He made a video of that improvisation,  known to the world as “Kalimba Solo for Lotus.” Available at the Kalimba Magic Shop, we have two instructional downloads

Learn this technique and write your own songs The African-tuned karimba is a very interesting instrument.  Jega Tapera was a South African who played traditional music on a 13-note karimba, a historical folk instrument.  In the 1950s he was discovered by Andrew Tracey, who recognized his excellence, and Tapera subsequently began teaching at the Kwonangoma School in Rhodesia, where the 15-note version of the African-tuned karimba came into being in 1960 to further Tapera’s music.  In 1980 the 17-note version was first made by Tracey’s South African company, African Musical Instruments, which still sells Hugh Tracey kalimbas today. Based on much scholarly research, Andrew Tracey put forth a very interesting

Free Tablature for “Silent Night” for the Treble Kalimba In my mind, most songs that you can play on the Treble kalimba are also possible to play on the Alto kalimba, and this offers great flexibility.  But there are some songs that are written for Alto that require its low notes and are just not possible on the Treble which by nature is in a higher range.  You could retune the Treble into a Bb Treble, and then it would behave just like an Alto with two extra notes. But there is one (very famous) song that I don’t think can be done properly on either the Alto kalimba or

Free Tablature for “Away in a Manger” for the truly versatile 8-Note Kalimba Click to download 8-Note tablature for “Away in a Manger” Kalimbas generally have more tines than an 8-note does. You may be wondering what could you do with only eight notes.  While it might seem that a kalimba with only eight notes would not be very capable, it turns out that there is quite a bit of music available to the 8-Note kalimba. Almost every 8-Note kalimba is tuned to the C major scale, playing from low to high: “Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do.”  In addition to being useful for many songs in C,

Free Tablature for Tinashe’s Song “Zambezi” Click to download Tablature for “Zambezi” Several people have requested the tablature for Tinashe’s popular and touching song “Zambezi,” which has been around on YouTube for a while. It is a great song for the kalimba, as it is pretty much just a four-measure riff that is repeated through the song with minimal changes.  It is not difficult and even novice players can learn to play this song in about 10 or 15 minutes. “Zambezi” is performed by Tinashe on solo Alto kalimba and voice, and we also have a link to him performing it with a four-piece band. There is not much information available about

Free Tablature for “Coventry Carol” from the Freygish Download Get the Freygish Download “Coventry Carol” is a 16th century English Christmas Carol.  It has the haunting feel that some old English music evokes, and as a youth I was charmed by it and used to long to play music such as this song. This old Christmas carol and the Freygish-tuned karimba were made for each other – both are in the exotic-sounding harmonic minor scale.  This and many other great songs are part of the Freygish Download, and you can get the tablature for “Coventry Carol” free in this article. Let’s talk about how this song works.   What makes

A Journey through Kalimba Land – Where can you go? Original artwork by Tim and Mark Holdaway There are two broadly different types of gifts one can get for the holidays: one can get things, or one can get experiences.  When we fill our lives up with things, we can actually feel emptier.  When we fill our lives up with experiences, we are enriched.  We remember our experiences better than we remember our things.  And we are more present to our experiences. To some, the kalimba looks a lot like a thing.  If you hang it on the wall or leave it on your coffee table as an ornament, it

What are these different note symbols, and how long does each one last? In a recent blog post I described the the tablature as a map of the kalimba tines which shows you the right tines to play to accomplish a particular melody or song. If you are a newcomer to reading any kind of music, and find it impossible to know how to “see” tablature, or to know what the different symbols in kalimba tablature really mean, don’t despair.  This blog post is just for you – we talk about what the “tine map” means, look at the different types of notes and how long each kind lasts, and