One way to learn how to play the kalimba is to go off to a quiet place and let your thumbs wander freely across the tines while your brain pays attention from the sidelines. That's how I learned to play the kalimba. In this section, I share my hard-earned wisdom to help you strengthen and expedite your own intuitive learning process.

Gems of Inspiration

The Monday Tip of the Day concerns Mind/Body/Spirit, and often provides insights and inspiration for developing kalimba skills more intuitively. Here are some choice selections:

• Let the kalimba play you
• Short-cutting intuition
• Do you thirst for the kalimba's music?
• Healing rays of light and love
• Understanding the logic
• Knowing the note or taking the ride
• Listening
• Wrong notes?
• Simplicity of notes
• Play with effortess grace
• Being present
• Speaking the kalimba's language
• New Age sounds
• The wah-wah effect

A Little Understanding Can Help (Not Hinder!)

Playing with nothing but intuition is not very reliable. But if you tap your intellect, broadly speaking (versus at a detailed level where you are concerned with each exact note), your intuitive learning can be enhanced. Check out the following tips:

• Rule of thumb
• How the Hugh Tracey got its stripes
• A steady foundation
• Symmetry
• Changing octaves on the Pentatonic & Diatonic kalimbas
• Let one thumb slack while the other works
• ...and switch

Future Instructional Book

OK, I don't have this book yet, which will deploy an intuitive learning approach—but it's on the back burner! When it does come into existence, you will be able to link to it from here.