About this time, Hugh had an idea that would change the world. The mbira and all its related instruments were still largely unknown to the rest of the world, yet they made such beautiful and entrancing music. How could people understand the music these instruments made just by listening to the recordings he had made? Instead of picking one of over 100 different designs of traditional African kalimba, he decided to modify the traditional design and to create a new musical instrument that he could show to the world.

It would be a blend of the traditional African idea of the kalimba and a western scale. It would be true to its roots in that it would play beautiful and spiritual music, but it would be presented in a context which would be immediately accessible to its future western audience.

While many kalimba designs and musics utilized interleaved left and right thumb strokes, none had a western scale which alternated left to right on the instrument. And so, the Hugh Tracey Kalimba was born.

Some of the first kalimbas Hugh made had a metal box. He spent a lot of time experimenting with different kinds of wood, different materials for the tines, different methods for attaching the tines, and different ranges of notes. Kiaat hardwood was chosen for a host of reasons: it sounded great, looked beautiful, was plentiful (South Africa itself didn't have very many trees, but neighboring Mozambique did), and besides, furniture makers used kiaat wood and their scraps were a perfect size for the tiny kalimbas. Hugh Tracey kalimbas are still made from the beautiful kiaat wood today.

The first kalimbas he took to market were basically the same design as the Treble Kalimba. In the late 1950's, he took a few kalimbas with him as he lectured on African music around the United States. He met with executives at Creative Playthings, and they were so tickled they ordered 10,000 kalimbas! The company African Musical Instruments (AMI) was born, and immediately, a small factory was set up back in Krugersdorp, South Africa. It must have been an exciting time.