What's the Buzz at Kalimba Magic

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15% Off Everything at Kalimba Magic in September

For the entire month of September, you can get 15% off anything and everything you purchase from Kalimba Magic, including kalimbas, sansulas, amadindas, books, CDs, downloads, kalimba doctor services, etc.

Just remember to use the coupon code EarlyXmas when you check out.

If you've been waiting for just the right time to purchase that extra kalimba, wait no more. This sale can help you get some of your Christmas shopping out of the way early.

Pre-order Advanced Christmas Carols and Get a Free Christmas Kalimba CD

I have always gotten a lot of joy from playing Christmas music. The Christmas season in general is a bit crazy for me, especially now that I am in retail—but even on the busiest days, when I am able to stop and find that place of inner peace and let beautiful kalimba music flow from that place, I know that I am doing exactly what I am supposed to be doing. What a blessing, to have such a resource that I can draw on, and share with other people.

I am very pleased to have completed a new 48 page book containing 20 advanced arrangements of Christmas Carols, one for the Alto Kalimba and the other for the Treble Kalimba. These books will not be available until approximately October 1, BUT the first 10 people to pre-order the book will also get a free copy of the Christmas Kalimba CD when their book ships in a few weeks.

More Products That Make Great Christmas Gifts!

Would you like to be playing "Joy to the World" in time for Christmas? Purchase an instructional Christmas book now, and you'll be ready in time!

If you need some advise for the perfect kalimba for someone you love, just contact us and we'll be glad to help you out.

Advanced 8-Note Book Coming Soon!

Many children start out on the 8-Note kalimba, but several adults have also set out on their kalimba journey with this seemingly simple instrument. There are literally hundreds and probably thousands of songs that can be played on the 8-note. I'd like to share some words from Sharon Eaton:

"For me, there is a certain frustration factor of wanting to play better than I can, but the 8-note does not have that frustration factor. I think your subconscious mind has to think about all the tines on a kalimba, especially if you are playing by ear, and with the 8-note my brain says, 'Only 8? No problem!' And it puts its feet up and just enjoys the amazing things that come out of this little kalimba."

By the way, I've got dozens of advanced pieces for the 8-Note kalimba, and we will be working to get them into an advanced 8-Note book in the coming months. The book will include pieces for four different tunings: Standard (C major), Mid-East tuning, African Karimba tuning, the Ake Bono Japanese tuning, and Sharon's favorite, the F tuning (with Bb).

One of the pieces is Night Walk from my CD Between the Dark and the Light. Night Walk is also available in PDF format.

If you have any suggestions for what you would like to see in the book, please contact us!

Introducing Our Newest Premium Kalimba!

We have a new Premium Hugh Tracey kalimba for sale: an electric Alto with the longest sustain I have experienced on a Hugh Tracey kalimba.

In addition to the new one, two of last month's four Premium Kalimbas are still available, but note that you can apply the 15% off coupon code of EarlyXmas towards any of the Premium Kalimbas.

To remind you of the purpose of the premium kalimbas: I take the best and most beautiful of the Hugh Tracey kalimbas, and I spend a bit of time with them to make them even nicer, and then I sell them to you. I donate all the funds I get from Premium Kalimba sales to the emerging non-profit Tuning in to Africa. Our first proceeds will be used in AMI's Employee Assistance Program. These funds will help pay for health care and school fees for the immediate families of AMI employees.

Enter Your Homemade Kalimba into Our Contest!

In this issue, we have included an article providing instruction on how to make a kalimba using spring steel for the tines. After I made spring steel available recently, many folks got very excited about crafting their own kalimbas. To honor and encourage this creativity, we are going to have a new contest. This contest will have two categories:

• Best looking kalimba (send me no more than three photos of one or more kalimbas)
• Best sounding kalimba (send me an MP3 or a link to video of you playing - and play slowly, so we are hearing the kalimba sound rather than the skill of the player)

I'm trusting that you won't just pull out your Hugh Tracey or Sansula and play it on the sly! (Of course, if you do, there's a chance I will recognize those very familiar tines.)

Prize: $50 gift certificate to Kalimba Magic for the best looking and best sounding kalimbas.

We'll give you some time to work on your kalimbas. Let's have a deadline of October 20, 2009, and we'll feature the winners in the November Kalimba Magic Newsletter.

To enter the kalimba-making contest, simply contact me.

Downloadable and Free: Blank Forms for Various Kalimba Tunings

With people buying several Hugh Tracey kalimbas tuned to different keys in the Keymaster Package Deal, people are putting their kalimbas into all different tunings. One of my clients asked for some blank forms he could print out and fill in with the tuning du jour to help keep track of exactly what notes each kalimba is tuned to. I thought this would be a perfect little something to share with the kalimba community.

Tuning blanks for Treble and Bb Treble kalimbas - click for PDFs.

Kalimba Magic at the AMTA Music Therapy Conference

November 11-15 2009, San Diego

Kalimba Magic is very happy to be a vendor at the National Conference of the American Music Therapy Association in San Diego, November 11-15. But we are even happier to be presenting a one hour session on using the kalimba as a healing instrument. This is our first trip to the National AMTA Meeting. In the past, we have been very successful with the Western Region of the AMTA, and we are looking forward to working with people from all over the nation, as well as to breaking into the other AMTA regional meetings.

In addition to communicating our experience of the healing power and amazing accessibility of this instrument in our session at the AMTA conference, we will also be immensely proud to report on the availability of educational resources. Four years ago when Kalimba Magic was first launched, there were only five resources that I was aware of: two small books for the 8 and 12 Note kalimbas (circa 2004) by Steve Catania, a tutorial tape on the Treble kalimba by Paul Tracey (circa 1975), a book that notated the two hands independently by Carol Burt-Beck (like piano music, 1979), and an instructional CD, the author of which escapes my memory.

Kalimba Magic has increased the number of resources available to the world ten-fold. Now there are hundreds of songs which are notated for the kalimba, we have books, CDs, instructional web pages, Tips of the Day, online lessons and more. The kalimba is no longer a percussion toy. It is a fully formed instrument, like a harp or a guitar, capable of creating wonderful music, capable of accompanying voice, capable of solo playing with melody, harmony, and counterpoint—capable of enabling a musical relationship that can be therapeutically explored in depth for a lifetime. My vision is that in 20 years, the kalimba will be part of the core competency required of all music therapists.

If you plan on attending the AMTA Meeting, pleae stop by and talk with us at our booth, and come join our kalimba session on November 15. We were hoping to get a 5 hour CMTE slot, but one hour is definitely a foot in the door, enough to show you that you are going to want more!

Music Therapists, What Are Your Kalimba Successes?

Please send us your kalimba stories.

We will be doing another article on using the kalimba in music therapy. If you have a story about how you are using the kalimba in your practice, we'd love to hear it. Please contact us.

Great Deal on the Last Two Celeste Chromatic Kalimbas w/o Pickups

In order to clear space for Christmas stock, I'm offering a smokin' deal on these Celeste Chromatic Kalimbas w/o pickup.

Celeste kalimbas are mounted on a solid board instead of a box (see photo to left). We only have two of these left, and they are available for only $80, plus cost of setup: C Eaton setup is an additional $5, G Eaton setup is an additional $10. If you would like a Celeste Chromatic kalimba w/o pickup, contact me.

Celeste Pentatonics Featuring Wood Burned Art

We currently have in stock three Celeste Pentatonic kalimbas (one with pickup) which feature wood burn art depicting scenes from rural South African life.

I will lower the price of these kalimbas by $10 each month until they are gone! You can wait, but you might miss out if you wait too long.

If you are interested in owning one of these kalimbas, they are available at the Kalimba Magic Shop currently for $60 without pickup, $75 with pickup. This is significantly below the price of Celeste Pentatonic kalimbas.