December 18, 2009

Volume 4, Number 10

Kalimba Magic NEWS

• In This Issue
• Message from Mark: Powerful New Film on Race
• What's the Buzz at Kalimba Magic?
• Playing Recorder with the Kalimba
• Two Great Ideas for Kalimba Cases
• Key Flexibility on the Kalimba
• Buy Zimbabwean Music and Save Lives

Playing Recorder with the Kalimba

The recorder is an instrument that millions of people in the world get their first musical instruction on. No wonder so many consider it a toy.

If you doubt what can be done with the recorder, listen to Rule of Thumb (the recorders come in just over halfway through). This wonderful music was made with a $100 Hugh Tracey kalimba, a $1000 Martin guitar, a $1000 Gibson mandolin, and two $10 Yamaha recorders. The inexpensive recorder and kalimba stand up mighty fine to the sounds made by some of the best brands of guitar and mandolin.

In many ways, the recorder is the best musical investment you can make. And don't feel bad about getting a plastic recorder, they are actually quite good. I once had a serious recorder teacher who told me not to buy a wood recorder that cost less than $200 because "unless you spend more than that, it won't be as good as a $15 plastic recorder." You can take the plastic recorder anywhere - on the plane, up a mountain, in the rain - and when you loose it or break it after playing it for 5 years, you won't cry, but you'll just turn around and buy another one. If you play it, you will definitely feel you are getting your money's worth.

The kalimba is similar to the recorder in many ways. They are both economical instruments, and they are both open to beginners. They can both go anywhere on earth in your back pack.

You can get a good sound on your kalimba in about 10 seconds, though it might take you a while to breath right to support the recorder's sound - otherwise it goes flat. Unlike most kalimbas, the recorder is actually fully chromatic, though it is often payed as if it were a diatonic instrument. When I was re-learning the recorder at age 24, I found that I could play it for 10 hours a day without causing any bodily pain. You can't do that as a beginning kalimba player, your thumbs will certainly hurt after an hour. The use of thumb picks and the growth of thumb nails can help stretch the length of time beginners can play without physical discomfort.

The recorder opens up young minds to the structure and rules and possibilities of music. The kalimba opens up young minds to all of this, as well as the ancient history of proud and beautiful African people who imagined something new and created it in seemingly never ending diversity.

The soprano recorder, which is the one typically used in schools, is usually played in the key of C. You can play an entire octave in the key of C without going up into the higher register (which requires half-hole notes on the left thumb). As such, it is a great match for any C-tuned kalimba, such as the Catania 8-Note or 12-Note instruments.

I myself prefer to play the soprano recorder in the key of G - that is, the root note is played by covering the three upper holes with your left hand and also covering the thumb hole with your left thumb, but not using any fingers on the right hand. I just like the way melodies sit in that framework - you've got a full octave in the middle of the instrument's range (straddling the lower register and the upper register), and half an octave below that and half an octave above that.

The disadvantage of playing in the key of G on the soprano recorder is that playing a full octave in G requires using half-hole notes with the left thumb and the upper register notes - so this is more for advanced recorder players. That said, the G soprano will work great with the Hugh Tracey kalimbas - Alto, Treble, Pentatonic, or Hotshot, which are all keyed in G.

By the way, of all the music that I play, I feel that I am closest to flying while playing the recorder. It is an experience that I recommend to everyone. But in part because of the integrated use of left and right brain, I feel that I am closest to a fully realized human being when I play kalimba.

In upcoming newsletters, we'll talk more about playing the recorder and the kalimba together - we'll get into some details that teachers can use in classrooms.