Kalimba Magic NEWS
Volume 1, Number 7
October 20, 2006
In This Issue:
KTabS Kalimba Tablature Software:
Classical KPacks Now Available
KTabS is a general purpose program for making kalimba tablature for any kalimba. The full KTabS program, which allows you to write your own kalimba tablature, costs $30, but now the KTabS reader (which displays the tab on your Windows computer while playing the music through your computer's speakers) is available for only $5. What music might you play with the KTabS reader?
Sharon Eaton has created the KTabS files for all of the Kalimba Magic books (except for the Karimba Book), and they are available at the KTabS Store. But the most exciting thing going on at KTabS right now is the new Classical Music KPacks for the Hugh Tracey Alto and Treble kalimbas. Sharon and I took 20 of our favorite classical pieces by composers like Bach, Tchaikovsky, Handel, Dvorak, Wagner, Satie, and Holst, and arranged them for the kalimba. There are some wonderful and beautiful kalimba pieces in this collection. The pieces are ordered from easiest (appropriate for any beginner) to hardest (which will challenge even the most skilled kalimba players).
Here are a few of the Classical songs available in KTabS, as played by KTabS on my desktop computer:
- Brahms' Lullaby (beginner)
- Wagner's bridal chorus (intermediate)
- The hymn passge from Holst's Jupiter (advanced)
- A celebratory passage from Holst's Jupiter (advanced)
And this is what the first few measures of the Jupiter Celebration look like. Its easy to learn how to play with KTabS!
You can read more about the Classical KPack at KTabS.
Just tonight, I was playing Dark Star and Estimated Prophet on the kalimba, so we'll have to do a Grateful Dead KPack for ballance.
Percussion Arts Society Reviews
Two Kalimba Magic Books
The journal of the Percussive Arts SocietyVol. 44, No. 5 * October 2006
Mark Holdaway
20.00
Kalimba Magic
The kalimba (also known as the sansa, mbira, and African thumb piano) seems to be attracting interest recently as a performance vehicle, making Holdaway's 32-page spiral-bound tutor a timely publication. Using this text, anyone can learn a great deal about the kalimba - more specifically, the Hugh Tracey Alto Kalimba, a diatonic instrument with 15 metal tounges or "tines", tuned to notes that cover two octaves of a G major scale, and played with the thumbnails.
Holdaway's text is written with the Hugh Tracey Kalimba in mind. Tracey was an English ethnomusicologist who lived and worked in Africa during the last century and recorded the music he encountered. The kalimba he designed is tuned to a Western major scale, making it feasible to play anything from Bach to Woody Guthrie. For those who have a Hugh Tracey Treble Kalimba, an alto-treble conversion chart is provided.
Holdaway covers basics such as maintenance of the instrument, fixing a buzz, tuning the kalimba, maintenace of one's thumbnails, making sounds on the kalimba, and creating a glissando, "wah wah" and vibrato. However, the piece de resistance of this text is the ingenious tablature Holdaway has devised for writing kalimba music. Holdaway's tablature uses a diagram of the tines of the alto kalimba, but unlike tablatures such as those for lute and guitar, the lines and notes are written vertically, not horizontally, so that the player starts at the bottom of the page and reads and plays in a vertical direction to the top. Holdaway uses conventional notation to indicate whole, half, quarter, eighth, and sixteenth notes; however, note stems are placed in a horizontal plane extending to the left of the noteheads, and rests are turned to match the horizontal alignment of the note stems.
The text provides exercises to develop the player's familiarity with the instrument, including playing two- and three-note chords and seven modal scales. In addition, a variety of tunes are found, include "Doe a Deer", "Joy to the World", "Michael, Row Your Boat Ashore", Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land", "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", Beethoven's "Ode to Joy", "Doxology", and a portion of Marley's "Stir it Up". An enclosed CD covers all the exercises in the book as well as the tunes mentioned above.
-John R. Raush
Mark Holdaway
20.00
Kalimba Magic
In this 32-page spiral-bound text, Mark Holdaway uses his ingenious tablature notation to make 25 traditional Christmas favorites (18 arranged for the alto kalimba, five for the treble and two for both instruments) available to aficionadoes of the ancient instrument also known as the African thumb piano. It is important to note that these arrangements were written specifically for the Hugh Tracey Alto and Treble Kalimbas made by African Musical Instruments in Grahamstown, South Africa. Kalimba enthusiasts should find these arrangements quite accessible, assuming they have become familiar with their instruments, comfortable with their performance, and can interpret the notation as it appears in the user-friendly system devised by Holdaway, which features a form of tablature. The Christmas selections progress from examples written for melody alone to those in which the melody is set over a harmonic background, and culminate in more difficult arrangements with more complex textures. An enclosed CD includes performances of all 25 pieces.
-John R. RaushInterview with Decio Gioielli
Brazillian Kalimba Master
This month's kalimba interview is with Brazillian tuned-percussionist and Kalimba Master Decio Gioielli.
KM: What first attracted you to the kalimba?
How ong have you been playing it?
DG: I first got in touch with the Kalimba in 1983 in the
Percussion classroom of the University of Music I used
to attend. I found the Kalimba within a drawer — it
was an original Hugh Tracey Kalimba — the classroom
was full of instruments used in Orchestras and
Percussion Assemblies. What called my attention was
the very special tone of the instrument. By that time
I already knew a number of instruments but I had never
heard such a special sound in whole of my life.
KM: How popular is the kalimba in Brazil?
DG: Kalimba is not a popular instrument in Brazil
nowadays, but it used to be popular in the XVIII and
XIX centuries. One can see some paintings in the
booklet of my CD with images of slaves playing the
Kalimba.
Actually, Debret and other important painters portrayed some real scenes of slaves in Brazil. Three million slaves came to Brazil from Africa during the Colonial period. Although they did not bring any of their belongings, they kept their cultural heritage — knowledge and cultural heritage are treasures that men can not take away from men. I believe that the instruments portrayed in those paintings were built in Brazil. Unfortunately, I do not know what happened from middle of the XIX century and the first middle of the XX century as there is not any reference of the Kalimba in the country during this period. Today, the Kalimbas built in Brazil are based on Hugh Tracey’s model.
KM: Your CD "Kalimba" gives a lot of respect to
African Musical Instruments (AMI), the maker of the
Hugh Tracey Kalimba, even to the point of naming one
of the songs "Grahamstown", after the city AMI is
now located in. Tell us about your feelings towards
AMI, Africa, and the Hugh Tracey Kalimba?
DG: I always refer to AMI and to Tracey’s family as
they were the first people to really value my music.
My first trip to Africa was in 1994 to take part in a
commercial video for AMI. The music Grahamstown was
a reverence to the Tracey’s who always treat me
affectionately. Every time I visit them, I feel as if
I am in my own home. Andrew Tracey introduced me an
Africa that the Brazilian people do not know. An
Africa with Polyphonic music which includes the
Kalimba family.
KM: Your playing is very precise, crisp and clear.
The Kalimba, on the other hand, is sort of known as a
toy that people can just fool around on and make nice
sounding music. How did you transition from kalimba
as toy to kalimba as a precision instrument?
DG: When I first got a Kalimba, although being a
professional musician, I did not intend to play a
certain melody, just playing the instrument in an
aleatory way. Playing the instrument is almost a
therapy — just touching the keys from one to another
makes you feel really well by producing such a
pleasant sound. After a couple of years playing the
Kalimba in this way, I had my first musical idea. It
took me a number of years to create a repertory.
KM: You use several different Hugh Tracey Kalimba
models. Most of your compositions on your "Kalimba"
CD are in the natural tunings these instruments have when they
come from Africa. Do you ever change the kalimba
tunings?
DG: I try to use different Kalimbas mainly because
by doing so I can have different resources available.
My "Kalimba" CD has the original tuning from AMI.
This was not intentional but it is interesting for
those that do not know the instrument to notice some
of the possibilities of AMI’s instruments. Most of
the times that I am invited to play in recordings I
usually have to use different tunings, as I did in the
"Meu Nenem" CD, for instance.
KM: Do you ever play on kalimbas which are NOT Hugh
Tracey Kalimbas?
DG: My first Kalimba was not a Hugh Tracey one. As
soon as I got a Hugh Tracey Kalimba I abandoned my
first instrument. Of course there was no comparison —
the quality of the sound and the structure were by far
superior to any other instrument I have ever seen
before. It is important to note that the "bridge"
keeps the keys firm and that makes all the difference.
I really believe that if I had not known the Hugh
Tracey Kalimbas, I certainly would have not have composed
my repertoire.
You can find out more about Decio and his music at:
- Decio's Web Site
- Hear a sonic collage of Decio's Kalimba CD
- Buy Decio's CD Kalimba
- Hear a sonic collage of Decio's Meu Nenem CD
- Buy Decio's CD Meu Nenem
A new book from Kalimba Magic:
Buy the pentatonic book from the Kalimba Shop.
The Kalimba Community
Horace in Oklahoma is looking for kalimba players to hook up with. You can email him at hswellons@hotmail.com.
Lizabeth in London, Ontario is seeking other kalimba players in the region from Michigan to Toronto. You can email her at lizabeth_31@hotmail.com.
The Holdouts
Jim Gates and I are The Holdouts. We are both multi-instrumentalists, and both play kalimbas and karimbas. Typically about a third of our music at our performances will have kalimba in it.
We've got a few gigs coming up here in Tucson:Oct 20, 7:30 pm at Montgomery's Saloon and Grill in Vail, AZ
Nov 5, 6:30 pm at Green Fire Music Collective in Tucson, AZ
Nov 18, 3:00 - 4:00 pm at the Tucson Museum of Art holiday gift fair
November 19 7:00 pm at The Synchronicity Center in Tucson AZ, with the Kalimba Club and other special guests
For more details, see the Holdouts web page.Upcoming Newsletter Articles
- In the upcoming months, we'll be interviewing Tom Spicer, Laura Barrett, and The Holdouts.
- We are expecting a new short book that will help you translate the songs in Rise Up Singing to the kalimba.
- New kalimba boxes will be available in time for Christmas!
If you have any questions, or if you have suggestions for future Newsletter Topics or Tip Of The Day ideas, please share them with me! -Mark
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