Copyright ©
2005-2012
Mark Holdaway
2005-2012
Mark Holdaway
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If you have a testimonial about the kalimba or kalimba music and what it has done for your life, please share it with me! Through roundabout connections, I happened upon one of your YouTube clips which was just brilliant - seemingly complex and effortless at the same time. And so uplifting. Interesting how some instruments - like the Cello for example - inherently have a sort of somber quality - but the Kalimba just seems inherently uplifting. And since it lends itself so well to spontaneous improvisation it seems to fulfil that poetic line by Wm. Blake: "He who captures Joy as it flies Lives in Eternity's sunrise." Blake, 2008 Just received my new Catania 12 note gourd kalimba yesterday. What a great little instrument! Photo doesn't to it justice. Love the sound and the craftsmanship. And made in the USA too! A perfect companion to the HT box pentatonic I bought last year. Bought my first Hugh Tracey about 35 years ago! Way more fun than you can shake a stick at! Thanks for being around. Mark, 2008 Dear Mark, I so enjoyed the interviews with those who work for AMI instruments. That was really uplifting to read! Thanks for all you do! Have a great day, Renee, 2008 Hey Mark, I got my kalimba on Friday and have been playing it all weekend. I really love it. Thank you very much. Patrick, 2008 Thanks again for all your help. You have certainly helped me wonderfully on the kalimba journey. Grace and Peace to you. John, 2008 First of all let me thank you again, I'm completely enamoured of my african karimba! I believe Kalimba Magic is the only truly informative [kalimba site] on the web, so congratulations! You should think about creating a forum where people can leave little tips and stuff and just to talk shop. I think anyone who plays a thumb piano and has access to a computer visits your site. The forum thing would be a big hit! Sebastian, 2008 Thanks a lot Mark, the fantastic kalimba arrived today! I'll leave immediately a feedback. Hope to get more in the future Paolo, 2008 [Editor's note: Phil bought an old beat up Hugh Tracey kalimba on ebay — it was missing its bridge as well as a tine, and we sent a tine to Phil.] New tine arrived the other day - many thx. Made myself a new bridge ( from bike spoke :) ) and finally managed to make time to get set up today... Ahh what a lovely sound compared to the dull tone of old wood (only) bridge. The fact that you took the time to send me a replacement tine, included a chord diagram and took the trouble to put in a little hand written note - 1 or 2 buzzing tines but sorted that by a little adjustment - made all the difference. What great service and attention to detail. Was talking to a friend about it and he said "who's this Mark Holdaway?". The best I could come up with at the time was "he's the Champion/Ambassador of the Kalimba". And that doesn't do you credit. Many thanks again, heh now to grow my thumbnails and actually learn to play! Phil, 2008 Wow!! Got the Alto and the Treble Kalimbas and the other stuff you sent... (that was fast!) Thank you so much! Mark... I'm usually not at a loss for words but these Hugh Tracy Kalimbas are incredible! Beautiful wood and craftsmanship and clear bright sound! Are you sure they are not made by Martin Guitars? I'm really impressed! You know that feeling you got when you picked up that "special guitar" way back when and you found yourself playing better than you ever knew you could? Well that happened to me last night when I got home and picked up these Kalimbas... I'm not kidding! I couldn't put them down! Great job on the Kalimba book... I have a lofty target to reach for now! I spent a couple of hours last night jamming with you on your CDs.... almost (but not quite) as good as jamming with you live LOL! I really look forward to meeting you someday! Duncan, 2008 Let me start by thanking you for making these instruments available...said that.... WWOOOOWWWW.... I have not been able to put down the Sansula, what a gorgeous instrument. I definitely share your vision of heaven having Angels playing Sansulas instead of Harps. Thank you as well for the enclosed CD, beautiful music, really inspiring, my favorite is the second track, the one featuring Sansula and the Marimbula, which by the way sounds freaking awesome as well, I was actually thinking of getting an acoustic bass, but now I think it will go into the wish list for 2009...hahhaha. Seriously, I've been really touched by your music, thank you. Angel, 2008 I live on the other side of the country - but my mother JoAnne just bought an Alto from you and I have to say that I am having some of the greatest fun I've ever had with this instrument. I also received your hand written card which was such a pleasant surprise. You've inspired me and brought immense joy to my life with your beautiful music. And for that, I can never truly thank you enough. GM, 2008 The karimba arrived Saturday. Man, that was fast! I love this instrument. It has a great sound and feel, and I love being able to plug it in! I have a little guitar effects processor I'm going to try with it. I'm sending my book out to you today. B. Michael Williams, PhD (author of Learning Mbira, A Beginning...), 2008 I recently purchased an Alto Kalimba for my "Big Present" for Christmas from The Kalimba Magic website. I have to say that it was one of the best "gifts" ever. I am currently working my way through the Kalimba fundamentals book. I hope to be able to play a few tunes in the near future. The newsletter is excellent! Keep up the good work. James, 2008 Hi Mark. Thanks for the CD! I have started building a few Kalimbas with my kids and it would be interesting to hear how a real one sounds. We have a lot of fun with these. Last year I did a school project with my sons grade 4/5 class. I came in for 5 afternoons and made instruments with them. They had a choice of the following to make. Cookie Tin Banjo, Glockenspiel, Sona Tube Drum, Flutes out of various types of pipe or a Kalimba. I was surprised when 11 out of 24 kids signed up for the Kalimba. Art, 2008 Love the newsletter and the info. Thanks for a great product! Best! Tracy, 2008 I absolutely love my kalimba and use it in my sound therapy reiki sessions. Thank you. I would like to add another to my collection that is different than the eight string gourd I started with. Can you suggest another? Cathleen, 2008 I received my Kalimba last week and began to include it with my other instruments I practice daily. I look forward to the new sound that I can bring to my family of percussion instruments. Thanks for your counsel and for driving the business for an instrument that is truly unique! Onward and upward! Steve, 2008 I received my Kalimba this afternoon....she is beautiful!!! Thank you so much for your quick delivery, and the CD...I've got to check out your Web-Site for more Tunes. Jona, 2008 You are beautifully gifted! I praise God for the gift of music and also for those who share such gifts with others. The world is better because you are here. Don't stop...ever! Steve, 2008 I'm playing kalimba pretty much every day. I don't play great, but I'm having a great time. These babies are pure fun. Steve, 2008 Mathew played his Kalimba for us over the phone the other night! It was a HIT! I KNEW it would be for uniquenss of gift ALONE! Thank you so much for introducing it to us! Will keep you posted! Gordon, 2008 Every time I walk by it I can't resist stopping, and plucking a note. I learned how to do a vibrato by using the back holes! It's fun, and has spiced up my song! Matthew, 2008 Message: hi Mark, my new karimba (african tuning) arrived yesterday along with your book. Needless to say im estatic! I started playing the kalimba after seeing your website and some stuff on youtube and immediately went and got a 8 note pentatonic hokema (wich i love) and a sansula (which i also love). After nearly busting my sansula trying to copy your alternate tunings (the beautiful e major and morroccan 2) and collecting all kinds of cheap little homemade, self made, strangley self tuned kalimbas so i wouldn't risk having to retune h sansula again, i decided enough was enough, and since im a guitar player (and like all the gutar players you'll ever know, i tend to have all their flaws: showing off, playing narcissistically, not really listening to other musicians, cramming notes everywhere, experiencing everything as guitar-centric, etc)i knew from the begining that sooner or later i would need more than just 9 notes! So i decided to get a karimba. Here in Spain it is actually very difficult to find hugh traceys (or hokemas for that matter). Much less people who know about the kalimba. Anyways your site was not only helpful in my playing which has become less narcissistic, more about listening and less about cramming notes in every single little hole the beat has to offer. I sound like a completely different person and my music breathes in a whole new way! B.B. king would be proud as so would you! I only hope this will eventually spill over into my guitar playing. Don't get me wrong I adore the guitar been playing classical stuff on it for 10 + years, it's just that it has this tendency to create musical psychopaths out off the player, and the kalimba seems to remedy these narcissistic tendencies. (if guitar players are self involved imagine violinists! hehe). All I really wanted to say was thanks you were not only helpful but professional and human at the same time. I never felt i was dealing with an instrument sales company, i felt i was talking to a friend. I guess your love of he instrument really shows! Keep up the good work and thanks. Sebastian, 2008 I discovered the kalimba about six months ago and have become quit proficient. I am an "ex" musician... that is, I made a living playing Guitar in bands back in the 70s and 80s. I got away from playing commercially since then but I still have a lot of music in me. I first picked up a Kalimba in a travel souvineer store while on vacation and when I bought it I was under the impression it was a kind of glorified portable wind chime kind of thingy but it sounded pleasant so I bought it. When I started playing with it and I was quite astounded to discover that it could cover about 95% of all western music. The model I have is an 11 note model made by a company in West Virginia "Goshen Art Studio". It is beautifully made and plays well. The amazing thing about it is the interest it raises everywhere I go. We camp a lot all over and I was singing and playing my Kalimba in the camp ground meeting hall for someone who had asked me what it was. (I love it when people do that!) I soon had a good crowd and the manager of the campground came up and offered to let me stay for free as long as we liked if I would do what I just did "once a week" for guests. Alas... it was a good offer but I had to get back to work. He said that guitarist and keyboard players come in all the time but he had never seen anything like what you could do with that simple looking thing. His offer stands... anytime I want to go back. There seems to be a great amount of curiosity and delight anytime it's played. I've sold lots of them just by showing what you can do with one. (I just give them a copy of the little cataloge of where mine came from) We sang christmas carols this year with the Kalimba instead of the guitar. It's true! The kalimba is a sleeper instrument combining rhythm, chords and lead in such a small package... with a singer it's amazing what you can get out of it! I too am stoked on it, unlike anything else I have ever done. If I could sell these things for a living I would, because of the sheer joy that music brings people! I truly believe you are on a good path! I can retire in about a year and a half and when I do I shall become "Johnny Kalimba" LOL! Duncan, 2008 The book is great in helping to teach me about patterning on the Kalimba and Karimba. That part really works for me. Of course, my instruments are in their own specific keys so I tend to apply the pattern work within my own improvising on it. It's definitely opened another door around Kalimba's for me. Thanks for that. Ann Marie, 2008 I just came back from Japan last night. I brought my first Kalimba with me to Japan. The security check detected some metal in my bag and had to open up the package. The security person said that he hasn't seen it for 20 years. (=Appearently he had seen it 20 years ago.) I gave it to my sister in Japan. She loved it. Then my 5 year-old niece was so interested in it. She started to play music almost immediately. I was amazed. I received your Kalimbas today. The alto kalimba has amazing deep sounds! Thank you so much. Yuka, 2008 I would like to buy another Kalimba that we could possibly play together with the celeste junior pentatonic. We are both enjoying playing the Kalimba and I'm wondering which two would sound nice together? I'm so grateful for your website and your beautiful music. I would love to be on your mailing list in case you ever come and play in the San Francisco area. Recently I have been faced with some pretty challenging times and playing the kalimba is one of the only things that seems to help me breathe and feel more calm. It helps me to sing and pray. Thanks, many blessings to you, Deb, 2008 I have a Hugh Tracey treble kalimba that I got from AMI in 1974, but I never really did much with it until I stumbled on some of your Youtube clips and then your website late last year. I tried your Bb tuning and love it - it makes so much more sense to me than the original G tuning. Bill, 2008 The Kalimbas have arrived. Cold but intact. The grandkids will be here tomorrow and we will see where the muse takes us. Thanks for everything and I'm sending you a karmic high five. Rich, 2008 Thank you for your kind attention to my order. Also, congratulations for living a true passion. Few people are as fortunate. Constantin, 2008 I got the kalimba the day after Christmas and Ian loves it. He figured out how to play "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" in about 15 minutes. We think it is very soothing to play. Ian says it doesn't matter what you play, it all sounds good! Thanks for everything--We'll probably get another kalimba down the road-- Suzanne, 2008 I received the Kalimba just before the end of 2007 and since then I'm plucking away happily every day. Having your Fundamentals book is a great blessing. Thank you for the nice little card that came with the instrument. Hans, 2008 We received the package of the 2 Kalimbas today. I was very impressed with the quality and the woods. These are fun. Doug, 2008 I received the alto kalimba with a pickup for Christmas and it is absolutely beautiful! I love how it sounds, it's so enchanting; somber yet uplifting. It truely is a gorgeous instrument! Chris, 2008 This exquisite little instrument arrived today. Thank you very much. I am so pleased that things turned out the way they did. This is way more than a kalimba stuck to a frame drum! It is so well done and I am completely enchanted already. I will be performing with it in an evening devoted to healing sounds and music. When people ask about the sansula I will send them to you I am delighted that it arrived in time for Christmas. It puts the rouge in Santa's cheeks. Thomas, 2008 I've been watching your videos and reading your website all afternoon, and I have to say I am beyond impressed - and inspired! Only thing is I watch one clip and decide that's the kalimba I'll get, then watch another and change my mind - they are all so wonderful :) nzgoddess, 2008 Since my kalimba is here I can't let it alone, i play and play and i'm very happy, i like it, it's magic, wonderful, it's like a dream that's get real, your learning book are very good, and today i'll play the happy birthay song for my son who is 16 years old, and it's a joy for me to play it on he kalimba i plugged it on my cube Roland amplifier and the sound is very clear, Thanks thanks thanks and i give you a big hugh over the ocean... "the best is yet to come" a happy kalimba student, 200 I got the pack yesterday, and I couldn't believe my eyes (actually my ears!!)... The kalimbas are awesome, I didn't know that the celeste chromatic is quite smaller than the box one, which is good, and the sound is really different. The box one is pretty louder, but the celeste has a sweeter sound, I adore it. When I tried the pocket hokema, it shocked me... it sounds like an electronic piano, when my parents and friends heard it they were astonished! I believe hokema's have the best sound of all existing kalimbas, hugh tracey's are surely better for other reasons, and the chromatic will always be my fav kalimba, but hokema's have the sweetest sound ever!! I think I'll soon put a few videos on youtube, on my chromatic I can already play "Fur Elise" just like Sharon, + "Amazing Grace", + "You Are the King", + "the Wind Waltzer". I will let you know when I'm on youtube with the kalimbas. Well, thanx again for selling these awesome instruments. Nick, 2008 I just got the sansula today, like I expected they're really beautiful, beautiful sound, beautiful design, thanks! I used to play a little mbira, I try to get familiar with the instrument now. John Lee, 2008 They exceed my expectations. I am having a blast playing them! I am used to playing the alto. I have had one since 1975! I think this one is my fifth (?), but it is my first electric Hugh Tracy. I have a gourd kalimba that I put an acoustic guitar pick-up on with putty and tape. And I have a really nice built-in pick up from Dave Belinger's ekalmiba website. I had wondered if my Hugh Tracy alto or celeste would sound very good electrified. Well, you have answered that! I love the depth of sound I am getting out of the alto. Very nice and textured. I didn't quite "get" the 8-note kalimba when I first picked it up. I figured I would have to learn how to play it. But I dreampt it all night long, and when I woke up this morning, I had it! I've been playing it all evening. Thank you for being a kalimba lover, and for passing these instruments along! I appreciate that you picked out a nice alto for me. I can tell. I also appreciate the CD, "Two Thumbs Up"! I think #9 -- K Jazz --- is one of the best songs in any genre that have heard in awhile. Tom, 2008 Cool! I have just received the picks and the wonderful copy of "Rise Up Singing". I am definitely going to tackle some of those songs with the treble - a celeste treble is currently my favourite instrument. I was singing from the book this morning with the kids - thank you for spreading blessing. The picks I have just used (a minute ago), and they are brilliant - long glissandos become feasible, harp-like sounds are easy to achieve - you have brightened my day wonderfully. John, 2008 I received my special requests Kalimba yesterday. You made my day, AGAIN. Your service is truly impeccable. When I was a teenager, one of my mothers favorite thing to do, was to eat out at Chinese Restaurants. She always took me along. I was really impressed with their service and manners. Always bowing, genuflecting etc. I commented to my mom about this and she said "yes, They will bow every penny out of your pocket". She meant well, so do I , when I think of you That way. Then I think , "you did not come here to bow, you came here to conquer and its strictly love you're giving to your brother". Frank, 2008 I just placed an order for a couple kalimbas to help the cause. I hope you get a good response. I for one, am so happy that you do what you do, and I think you fill such an important role for anyone who appreciates the kalimba and the music it brings to the world.. Your site it the hub and definitive one stop shop for the kalimba player; and you are the ambassador of the Hugh Tracey Kalimba and that whole fabulous world. Devin 2008 I thought I’d be bold and offer some feedback on the chromatic model; and of course this is just my personal opinion. I think it’s lame. The design is so very non-ergonomic; it’s just not how my fingers work. Besides I’ve gotten way too used to using my middle fingers on the vibrato holes in the back. I need to hold the thing with my fingers so my thumbs can do their thing. I guess for me it just feel doesn’t feel like a kalimba and is way too awkward. After an initial intensive excitement and attempt at learning the thing, I’ve put it away and haven’t touched it since. File under oddity. I’m sure there will be those out there who will master the thing and create amazing music, but I’m waiting for the model that finds a way to keep the keys where my thumbs can get to them - the way a kalimba should be. ; ) Devin, 2008 Absolutely the most pleasant and soothing song I have ever heard. Kemuksigak, 2008 Hello Mark, So many thanks! I've received the box this friday (it was very quick!) Every kalimba is a world in it's own. I love the karimba, lots of fun already. The chromatic is something totaly new (I'm ready to work). And the catania is perfect for kids (it's for a gift, but I hesitated to try it) and very easy to retune. Thanks again, I bought a "G" Kalimba at PASIC last year. I love it. I float away with this thing. The output through effects is super sweet. Thanks for the inspiring Kalimba, and I will see you again in Columbus when PASIC comes back to Ohio. All the Best, You`re a genius! I did what you said and succeeded in the first attempt. I placed a dowel rod just above the hole (towards the tines). The B now sounds much and much better! I couldn`t believe how easy that was.Thanks again for the tip. Btw. I also saw your video of Nowhere man. You are magnificent at playing the kalimba, but now I can finally start fiddling around with mine. Yay. Arenda, 2008 I have the African tuned kalimba with the pick-up. I hook it up to my Fender Acoustic Amp and my loop pedal and let the music take me away... Pat, 2008 I wanted to tell you that this website has been a very big help to me in choosing the type of kalimba I wanted to play. As a pianist currently wtihout a piano, the kalimba has been a great instrument. Kyle, 2008 Great! I've just received my wonderful HT Alto. I love it. It's the first time since a long time that an instrument got me ''stoned'' by playing it and letting myself drift away. Well, isn't it the very essence of the kalimba? Mathieu 2008 You've done some brilliant stuff on the kalimba and its really inspired me, as did reading about the jamming group you started. Two or three months ago I bought a beautifull Hugh Tracey Treble at a car boot sale in Cornwall (south west UK) for 4 quid which is from 1966 and is in excelent condition. I realise now what a find it was! At the time life was really difficult for me as I was trying to finish my horticulture degree. Me, my boyfriend and our cat were also living in a rat infested blue double decker bus with no wheels, no electric, heating or running water on a farm in the middle of knowhere owned by a mad clown/circus rignmaster and the kalimba was exactly what I needed to get me through the long, dark creapy evenings! My boyfriend had his guitar to get him through and fortunatly for me, like you say on the website, I think attitude on the kalimba is as impotrtant as musical knowledge (which I have very little of). I got some (what I think) really impressive sounds and tunes out of it just by messing around with it for hours and reading the booklet that came with it. Zena, 2008 Your kalimba changed my life man, and you even sent me a CD of your music! Even if we have different styles, it serves as a corner stone for my work. Thanks for that too! Juan Carlos, 2008 Anyway i like to buy a Kalimba...i'm not a musician and i don't know the gramatic of music till now...but you never know!! I just felt in Love with that Kalimba sound...it's just makes me happy to play with it...it takes me in my little secret garden. I've just been fortunate enough to hear your truly lovely playing on You Tube. It was the video called First Look inside, and it was probably one of the loveliest things I've ever heard. Did you write that song? It's beautiful. Thanks for posting the video on You Tube. It's the sort of thing that makes me remember to be glad to be alive. Take care, It is a very interresting the experiment you do with the kalimba in musik thérapy I am not a therapist, but I use the Kalimbas and Sansula in some projects of art & culture in the hospital. It is a very nice experience, playing for these people. They appreciate alot the sound of the Kalimba. They tell me how good they feel after listening to this music. Ary, 2008 I have never, ever, seen such an instrument before but that little kalimba box is MAGICAL. gorgeous tones, sustains really well and I love how you get a tremolo-like effect by covering the soundhole with your thumb. youre playing of nowhere man is stellar as well, of course! Emir, 2008 Thanks for the great job on getting my HT Treble back in tune. I'm leaning scales and chords now! Barry, 2008 Hello Mark, My beautiful Kalimba arrived in the mail today and I'm very happy with it. Thank you creating such an evocative and rather haunting tuning for me. I'm also listening to your CD and it's just lovely. You're a very talented and gifted player! I'm looking forward to creating opportunities to join this new member of my instrument 'family' with my Hang especially as well as my Udu drum, Shruti Box and my 'D' didgeridoo. They will all play very well together. In play, I'm really digging into the Fundamentals Book. Its really opening me up and causing me to grow. To me, its really good to be able to see the notes I need to play written out in the tablature. And I play the CD over and over again so I can feel the music of an exercise. I am really really having fun! Darrell, 2008 Hello, Mark! I'm back from my travelling. Natasha received the kalimba, and she gave unbelievably great response to that (or something like that :) , it's the greatest gift I ever gave (certainly with help of you, this one). Magic and happiness around us :)) Well, for the statistics: Kalimba arrived on 11-th of August, so as I understand it took about 2 weeks to get from you to Russian addressee. Thank you so much! Kirill, with all the best, 2008 Anyone wanting to buy a Kalimba, this is the place to get one! Mark was incredibly helpful and informative! It's a good thing these instruments are so small and easy to take anywhere, I can't put it down! I got the Hugh Tracey 15-note Alto and it is already non-stop fun, thanks so much! Alan, 2008 |