Kalimba Magic NEWS
Volume 1, Number 8
November 21, 2006
In This Issue:
New Custom-Built Kalimba Cases
Some cases to hold two kalimbas
A lot of kalimba players have multiple kalimbas, and it's nice to be able to carry two in this great case. Frank Gacon has come through with some more Kalimba Cases, but you will want to hurry on this purchase, because these high quality, Made-In-America custom cases designed just for the Hugh Tracey Kalimba are available in limited quantity. When Frank isn't busy doing his PC Board Layout consulting work, he spends a lot of his free time in the wood shop. He loves working with poplar, and these lovely boxes are made from stained poplar with Larry Gordan's help.
We learned from Frank's first batch of kalimba cases that there is a strong demand for cases that can accommodate two kalimbas, so we have shifted our stock in that direction. You can fit two Hugh Tracey kalimbas, Alto or Treble, and a few KalimbaMagic books into the lockable cases. Nice material inside protects your kalimba.
And also cases to hold just one kalimba
But there are also a lot of people who want something smaller for just a single kalimba, so we proudly introduce the BackPack Kalimba Case, perfect to protect your kalimba in tight places. The BackPack Kalimba Case snaps into place with powerful magnets holding top to bottom.
Special for Christmas:
Christmas Carols Book and Christmas Kalimba CD
I have always experienced Christmas through the joys of music and light, and that is what I have tried to capture in my Christmas Kalimba CD. Now, the Kalimba Christmas Carols Book will help you experience that joy first hand while you play your Alto or Treble kalimba. I am offering these two, my artistic CD of beautiful Christmas music played on the kalimba, and a book with both tablature and accompanying instructional CD, for only $25 plus shipping.
The CD includes Simple Gifts, O Christmas Tree, Caroll of teh Bells, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, Silver Bells, St. Basil's Hymn, Do You Hear What I Hear, my own composition Chorale, Silent Nightm and my famous Kalimba Christmas Medley (Jesu, O Holy Night, God rest ye Merry Gentlemen, Good King Wensaslas, Emmanuel, Away in a Manger, Bring a Torch, We Three Kings, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Oh Come All Ye Faithful, Gloria, and Joy to the World).
The book has 32 pages with 25 Christmas carols, starting with very simple tunes such as Up on the House Top and Jingle Bells, and working up to Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring and O Holy Night.
This is a great opportunity to experience the joy of Christmas in a whole new way.
Interview with Tom Spicer
inventor of the Kalimbass
This month's kalimba interview is with Tom Spicer, who mounts a Hugh Tracey Kalimba on his electric bass and plays the two at once, making real music that is not just a technical stunt, but which is really good and really unique.
KM:
I've been playing kalimba for 20 years, and I am still
amazed that people who have been playing kalimba for a week
or a month or a year often come up with ways of using
the kalimba that I've never thought of. Tom Spicer came upon
his great discovery of how to use the kalimba the first time
he tuned the instrument.
Tom, you've got a pretty unique thing going, attaching a Hugh Tracey
Kalimba to your Tacoma acoustic-electric bass, and playing them simultaneously.
Wherever did you get the idea for that?
TS: About 10 or 11 years ago, my 2 sons Max and Erik,
ages 12 and 8 respectively at that time, bought an alto,
Hugh Tracey Kalimba for $3.00 at a flea market (what a deal!).
It lay around the house for weeks and one night late, I decided
to try to tune it for reasons I explain on my
website.
I was playing another type of acoustic/electric bass guitar (Washburn)
back then and it was the only musical instrument I had to temper or
tune the kalimba with. Not knowing how kalimbas are tuned I began
with the bass guitar laying flat on my lap and put the kalimba by
the bridge and as I adjusted the tines into a random tuning some
incredible things began to happen. One was the resonance of the
wood on wood of the kalimba on the bridge of my bass guitar
(I knew nothing of the mbira and resonators then) and the other
was also coincidental being that the chords I built responded
as I moved the bass notes around, i.e., I was able to play it
almost like a piano yet it wasn't at all like a piano, it
was something new which I began to tweak here and there over
the next 4 years. It morphed by baby steps then leaps and bounds.
Sometimes months would go by with unsolved problems and obstacles
then bang, problems solved until it got to where it is today.
One of the biggest challenges was the bass guitar itself. I was
never satisfied with the bottom end resonant sound of my other
acoustic bass guitars but when I found the Tacoma Bass... I knew the
moment I touched that bass guitar that it was the one, so I bought
it immediately and rushed it home where I velcroed the kalimba so
it touched the sensitive part of the bridge, which gives me both
resonance and a huge bass/kick drum effect when I use my right
thumb to thump the kalimba box, which hits the transducer and bass
guitar simultaneously and that's one of my favorite effects about it
which is very dominant on my live performances. Everyone thinks
I have a drum nachine and I find it very disturbing when people
don't figure it out for themselves that it's all organic and all
ME ME ME. uh oh, now I've really shown my self
KM: How long have you been doing it?
TS:
At least ten years, 4 or 5 tweaking it and
5 or 6 playing it all the time.
KM: How do you attach the kalimbas to your bass?
TS:
Velcro took 2 or 3 years for me to discover,
I used to strap it on...um er, uh...whud I just say?
KM: Does the bass work as a resonant chamber for the kalimba, or
is the velcro contact not strong enough for that?
TS:
Resonates incredibly most definitely as it sounds great
unplugged even. It was discovering where and how to position
the kalimba and the best places to line up the velcro and as
little velcro as possible.
KM: You seem to use mainly Treble kalimbas, both the celeste and the
resonant-box models - do you use other kalimbas?
TS:
I'm very content with the treble yet I'm always tinkering
with permutations of other types however no other kalimbas are
used than those you mentioned yet.
KM: What do you find to be the advantages of the celeste vs the resonant
treble?
TS:
None really because they are both applied to the same technique.
They do have different sweet spots like all instruments same or
different. I think those differences come out under traditional
applications more than with the KalimBass. There's much yet to discover
and that's exciting to me.
KM: What keys do you tune your kalimbas to?
TS:
My two favorite kalimbas are tuned with center tines as the root,
one in B/dorian and one in A/dorian pentatonic up the left side and a
weird set of intervals of fourths, whole steps and half steps up the
right which gives me some amazing chordal voicing flexability.
I use variations of that on other kalimbas though I have a couple
I use most all the time and switch to other kalimbas which are
good for about 3 songs each as opposed to unlimited compositions on
my favorite kalimbas. I have to admit that my best tunings are a bit
of a guarded trade secret. There's the obvious and the not so obvious.
KM: What pickups do you use on your kalimbas?
TS:
This is wierd because I'm told they are Piezo double transducer, i.e.,
it's a "Y" with two little, very thin, flat discs and I get them from
http://www.Musikit.com. They work great though I get a nice bit of bass and
mid range bleed through my Tacoma's transducer.
KM: How old are the kalimbas you use? Do you notice a difference between
the older kalimbas and the newer ones?
TS:
I don't really know how old the first ones are but since they were
the larger, alto ones with fewer tines I most prefer the smaller, brighter
treble kalimbas I've purchased since.
KM: Have you ever played kalimba with your two thumbs?
TS:
No, is that a trick question? I mean I'll keep it clean...I
can think of some good answers to that one, whew! three thumbs up!
KM: Any advice to offer folks on playing with your fingers?
Any special finger nail care?
TS:
Don't bite your nails? I used to go to a nail salon and have the
Vietnamese ladies glue thick, French nails on my right hand fingers but
while the salon visit is enjoyable those nails get really disgusting after
a week or so. I can make do even when they break. My nails have become
stronger over the years and I'm not one to fuss over that kinda thing,
we are best when we adjust on the fly I think. It makes us adept at adapting.
I was told to just use a clear, hard polish but you won't catch me dead with
nail polish of any type thank you.
KM: Do you have any proteges, students, or imitators?
TS:
Not that I'm aware of...
I have offered to teach it to the kid who played bass for my sons band
"Spector 45" Jose who is awesome but I think it's a mindset and it
helps if you've worked with the best New Orleans drummers as I have
(Johnny Vidocovich, Ricky Sebastian, Hurlen Riley, and on and on)
as well as have been moved and influenced by certain artists (Chic Corea
and light as a feather is the essence of my trio of sounds spiced with
all New Orleans has or had to offer), I mean at least to play it the way
I think KalimBass should be played. Any one can try to go through the motions
of imitating what I do but it's my experience, influences and disposition
that have allowed it to happen but I'm down with passing it on. I think my
son Erik has a good shot a pulling it off some day.
KM: And tell us a bit about how you came to play the cool
music you make with the kalimbass.
TS:
The kalimbass could not have happened without these influences, experiences,
desires and disposition.
I have had the luck of working with some of the finest drummers and musicians.
Ricky Sebastian an incredible drummer I met in college where we struck a
close bond. He was a year younger yet was my musical mentor for years to
come. He had perfect pitch and rhythm and was from Gonzales, La. You can
google him too (credits w/Jaco Pastorius to Harry Bellefonte, etc...)
Ultimately we parted ways after leaving Berklee College in Boston and
playing on the road with Gatemouth Brown then here and there, Bourbon
Street which wasn't the height of our relationship but never quit
learning from that amazing talent.
Steve Masakowski played an instrument which I think he ditched called a
Keytar which simply said to me that you can glue a bunch of stuff together
and make it sound really interesting and that lead to many weird dreams
about all kinds of possibilities thus preparing a "musical room" in my
brain for such an event. Bobby McFarren who Ricky had worked with early
on and who I produced a 2 show sell out performance way back in the
80's...Bobby did things that also added to the music room in my brain.
Steve Amadee who plays a big tambourine like I'd never heard. He was
playing with friends of mine (The Subdudes check 'em out they made it
to letterman) and I couldn't believe my ears. It influenced the kick
drum sound I get from kalimbass. Junior Brown is a Texas dude that
also debuted on letterman who plays the most amazing guitar, another
must to check out. They/we are all freaks!
That's the basis of KalimBass's influences. I play with all of those
people every time I play kalimbass, oh and Jaco Pastorius from a
compositional and harmonic since, e.g. I love playing
"Portrait of Tracy" as opposed to all his hot riffs that most bass
players try to wank on. I think Portrait of Tracy is where it all
started for me/bass note with harmonic voicings...
You can find out more about Tom and his music at:
The New HT8: the Hugh Tracey 8-Note Kalimba
Perfect for beginning kalimba players, children, and people who love cute things!
You probably know the AMI trademark by sight - it's on the corner of the green box in the photo. What you may not have known is that this trademark design is based on a traditional kalimba, shown on the right, and also in a drawing in the liner notes of a CD of traditional music Hugh Tracy recorded in the 1950's. This traditional kalimba had eight notes, which were tuned the same as the bottom row of tines on the karimba.
AMI has just come out with a great new 8-Note Kalimba with the same shape as the AMI trademark and this traditional kalimba. But unlike the traditional kalimba, the new 8-Note Kalimba has tines that sustain for seconds on end.
Listen to the Hugh Tracey 8-Note Kalimba
The HT8 has exactly one octave in the key of C. It is a great instrument to start on. I would like to see these instruments in the schools as an alternative to the recorder. As both are in C, we could make some music that blends the recorder and the HT8. We've already got a great book for the 8-Note Kalimba, with more music on the way I have just a few of these kalimbas, and they will be gone very quickly, but I'll have more soon enough.
The Kalimba Community
Andy Robinson has written a nice article on the Kalimba in the San Diego Troubadour.
We have many newcomers on the world community page, including Randy and Sharon Eaton, Kevin Spears, Luc Decock, Stephen Swartz, and Percy Mwana.
Roland P. Young has come out with a new album, which uses the kalimba: Isophonic Nation
Horace in Oklahoma is looking for kalimba players to hook up with. You can email him at hswellons@hotmail.com
I, Mark Holdaway, am looking for people who play guitar, bass, percussion, or keyboards, who are dedicated to the sound and concept of the kalimba, and who want to create beautiful music. Living in southern AZ is a plus! Email me at: kalimba@markholdaway.com
Electric Kalimbas Back in Stock
We have electric Altos, Trebles, TM-Altos, and Celeste Trebles; we've got electric Karimbas, electric Celeste Pentatonics, and for the first time ever, electric Box Pentatonics.
Click here to go listen to the different electric kalimbas
Mark Holdaway's New CD
OK, call me a waffler, a flip-flopper. My next CD was to be called "Rule of Thumb", but when I compiled all of the music and started with the ordering and mastering process, I realized that this music is much more intense than the light-hearted title "Rule of Thumb". So convinced, I have named the CD "Between the Dark and the Light".Here's a song named Dark and Light
And here's a song named Where Is The Rain?
I expect to have this CD out by December 15.
KTabS Now Has Karimba Exercises
With the addition of the Exercises from the Karimba Book, you can now purchase the exercises to all six Kalimba Magic books at the KTabS Store.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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