What's the Buzz at Kalimba Magic

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Kalimba Magic Landmarks

Kalimba Magic has shipped to 60 countries. The 60th country is actually a stretch - I sent a kalimba to someone in the US who then sent it to their son in Afganistan. So the kalimba has found its way to Afganistan and 59 other countries!

We ship our kalimba books, our music CDs, and our kalimbas all over the world. There are Hugh Tracey distributors in several countries, but most countries don't have a distributor, and even fewer countries have someone who is selling the Kalimba Magic series of books. And there are some kalimbas, such as the student karimba or the Bb Treble and D Treble, which are sold nowhere BUT Kalimba Magic.

Kalimba Magic now has 24 instructional Books and Downloads for 10 different kalimbas.

Our song First Look Inside has been viewed over 100,000 times on YouTube, and at the time of writing, 498 people have given it the 5-star rating. People like this song so much that I have received dozens of requests for the tablature for "First Look Inside."

The Kalimba Magic mailing list now reaches 4000 recipients. If you aren't on our email newsletter mailing list yet, scroll to the bottom of the page and sign up!

Kalimba Magic has been in business now for 4.5 years, and these are all signs that we are here to stay! Thank you so much for your help over the years, for I am only half the equation - the rest of the equation is people like you who are wowed by the kalimba and who love to play.

Our Kalimba Magic Infomercial

We put this infomercial together for the AMTA Meeting in San Diego last month. It was made in six different bite-sized chunks each with a different topic that may be of interest to you:

• Kalimba Info 1: History Summarizes the history of the African Kalimba, which we have thanks to dedicated researchers like Hugh Tracey.
• Kalimba Info 2: Diversity of Kalimbas
  Shows the different kalimbas which we carry at Kalimba Magic and makes suggestions for different kalimbas for Music Therapy.
• Kalimba Info 3: Tips on Using the Kalimba
  General introduction to playing the kalimba.
• Kalimba Info 4: Using Kalimba Therapeutically
  Ten different ways to use the kalimba in Music Therapy but, of course, most of these ideas are applicable to anyone who wants to play the kalimba in a couple or in a group.
• Kalimba Info 5: My Testimonial
  The story of how the kalimba affects me personally.
• Kalimba Info 6: Kalimba Magic
  What we do here at Kalimba Magic.

Save 21% at Kalimba Magic,
One Day Only: Monday, December 21 !
Use the coupon code: cool-21

If you want your kalimba to arrive before Christmas, it is too late if you live outside the U.S. Within the domestic U.S., orders made as late as Saturday, December 19 will go out on Monday December 21 via US Priority Mail, and most of those boxes will arrive before Christmas.

But for those of you who have given up on getting your kalimbas by Christmas, we give you a great consolation prize: 21% off for the first 21 people who order on Monday, December 21, using the coupon code cool-21. We'll send your kalimbas out via U.S. Priority Mail (or First Class Mail International) on Tuesday or Wednesday, and you'll have them the following week (in the domestic U.S. at least).

Remember to use the coupon code cool-21 when you check out online on Monday December 21. This discount is not applicable to wholesale orders, sorry!

Get 5 Mark Holdaway CDs for $49

Looking for some inexpensive stocking stuffers this year? I am selling my own kalimba music CDs for 5 for $49, plus shipping. If you don't specify, I'll throw in two CDs of Two Thumbs Up, two CDs of Christmas Kalimba, and one CD of Between the Dark and the Light.

Here are some of the things people have said about these CDs:

"Two Thumbs Up is absolutely incredible. I'm your usual stressed out college kid... and this CD completely calms me down in those hard times, and helps me focus when writing papers and doing other work. Your blend of the Kalimba with popular instruments is very inspiring, musically. It has also opened my eyes to the power of the recorder. Perhaps I'll look into that next."
- Mark, 2009

"Your CD is beautiful and a rich and rewarding musical journey. It's truly inspirational. I can't thank you enough. As we say in Welsh: Diolch o galon - thanks from the heart!"
- Andrew, 2009

"I just wanted you to know how much I like your Christmas CD. Thanks so much for sending it, and for getting it to me so fast. [The kalimba is] a wonderful instrument, and you sure know how to make it sing. Merry Christmas to you!"
- Mary, 2007

"The Christmas Kalimba CD is beautiful, and I would like ANOTHER copy of that (I already planned to give away the two you mailed, but would like one for myself as well). The pieces are sparkling and sound so intricate!"
- David, 2007

"Thank you for the fantastic CD! I so rarely buy music (I have the tiniest collection of anyone I know--so that means, your music makes up a fairly big percentage of my collection!). How nice it is to have a CD in the truck and another at home. I've been listening to your music almost non-stop for a week."
- Jean, 2007

New! Kalimba Post Cards

If you'd like just a few postcards, just order anything from the Kalimba Magic catalog and we'll throw a few in for free! But if you would like more, we are selling them, 12 for $3, shipping included, or 25 for $5, shipping included.

These attractive Kalimba Magic postcards each have a story to tell - the story of African Musical Instruments and the wide variety of Hugh Tracey Kalimbas available, or the story of Electrified Kalimbas, or the story of how kalimba tablature is revolutionizing the kalimba world.

When you send these post cards out, you are telling the world and the people in your world just how much you love the kalimba!

Free Kalimba Book with Kalimba Purchase

Hey, folks! All month we've been advertising a free kalimba book for anyone who buys a kalimba, all you have to do is ASK for the book you want - but so far nobody has caught on and asked for the free book.

Ask for the free book in the special instructions field when ordering online, or just mention it when you are ordering on the phone at 520-881-4666.

The Roland Micro Cube Amplifier

When I was a kid, the gold standard for a guitar amplifier was a Marshall Stack. I assume these cost well over $1000, and I suspect that more than a few of the people who hauled these around are now suffering bad backs.

I myself just had the 20 amp Fender Deluxe Reverb, which was acceptable as a "practice amp," but didn't work so well in band situations unless someone put a mic on the speaker and pumped that signal through a PA system. I loved this sound for my guitar.

But here I am today, recommending an even smaller and cheaper amplifier for the Electric Kalimbas - the Roland Micro Cube. I bought my Micro Cube for $125. It runs on AC power or a stack of 6 AA batteries. I have found the batteries last for months. This amp is about the size of a small car battery, but the weight must be about 1/3 that of a car battery. As I get older, it is a joy to have a piece of equipment which is so portable, yet gives such a pleasing sound.

This amp has some basic effects: digital delay, reverb, tremollo, chorus, and flanging, but you don't have a lot of control of their parameters - just "more or less" of the effect. The amp also has a number of amplifier simulations with obscure amplifier names so they don't get sued by Fender or Marshall - but I am quite sure that one of those presets is for a Fender and one is for a Marshall.

The effects and the amplifier simulations add up to a very nice sound for my guitar (with its 25-year old sub-optimal pickup) and for my Hugh Tracey Kalimba as well.

We recently ran an article on a good preamp for the Kalimba for use with high end audio equipment. Another client is working on an article on his favorite preamp to use with the kalimba. Using something like a Roland Micro Cube amp and putting a microphone in front of it and feeding that through the PA is a great alternative solution. No, you don't have full control over the sound - only one tone knob, and the effects have minimal control. However, the sound is good, and I cannot argue with this little amp at all.

I've also plugged a microphone into this amp and used that to mic my kalimba for medium-small gigs - like 20 or 30 people, large enough that you need something, but you don't want to look silly bringing in the Mackie mixer and the Community monitors.

By the way, we don't sell this amp, but thought that many of you would find this to be an inexpensive solution for getting a good sound from your electric kalimba. You can find this amplifier online, or you can probably find it at your local guitar store. There are at least three different models of Roland amp which are similar: Micro Cube, Mini Cube, and Cube Street. The Micro Cube is the smallest and least capable of the bunch, so I expect you would be happy with the other amps as well.

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Don't forget! You can get 10% off all Kalimba Magic purchases ANY DAY OF THE YEAR when you use the coupon code CAT09 when you check out at the Kalimba Magic Shop. This coupon never expires.