August 21, 2010

Volume 5, Number 6

Kalimba Magic NEWS

• In This Issue
• Message from Mark: Tunings Are Palettes of Color
• What's the Buzz at Kalimba Magic?
• Interview with Steve Catania of Catania Kalimbas
• Kalimba of the Month: Catania Electric Pentatonic
• Also New from Catania: The 6-Note Pentatonic
• Nowhere Man: Tablature
• The Gods Must Be Crazy: Tablature
• Turn Your Alto into a Maurice White Pentatonic
• Tunings of the Sansula, Part 2: Morocco E
• 15 Original "2B" 9-Note Tunings Available
• Kalani Drum Circle = Community, Wellness & Joy
• Kalimba Community

The 2B 9-Note Kalimbas
15 Original Tunings Available

The 9-Note "2B" Kalimba

The 2B 14-Note kalimbas hit the market with a huge splash, and I am sold out of 14-Notes altogether, but I've only sold a few of the 2B 9-Notes.

I just finished going through the Thomas Bothe 2B 9-Note kalimbas, documenting and refining the tunings, and they are all posted below. When you order a 2B 9-Note kalimba, please specify which tuning you would like in the "Special Instructions" field of the online order form. If you don't select one, I will do so for you! BUT you can always change the tuning yourself. The wing nuts make it very simple to retune these instruments.

Which brings me to the reason why you should purchase a 2B 9-Note kalimba: it is a Sansula tuning laboratory. The 2B/9 is laid out very similarly to the Sansula, which also has 9 notes, but isn't so easy to retune. Anyone who is interested in developing their own tunings should get one of these to play around with. But they should also pay attention to Thomas Bothe's wonderful tunings! Just this list of 15 tunings probably equals the number of good tunings that people have created for the Sansula over the last four years!

When I change the tuning on the 2B kalimbas, I loosen the wing nuts by about half a turn. This reduces the pressure on the tines enough so they can easily slide to accomplish the retuning, but keeps enough pressure so that the tines don't fall out. After you get the tines in position to acheive the tuning you desire, tighten the wing nuts half a turn and recheck the tuning - usually the tuning does not go out by more than about 5 or 10 cents when you retighten, and you may be able to just live with that.

By the way, while I thought all of these tunings were fine, I have labeled some as good and some as great, indicating the tunings that I felt really stood out.

• Tuning 1: Ab mixolydian 1 Listen or View PDF -- great
• Tuning 2: Ab 1 Listen or View PDF -- good
• Tuning 3: Ab 2 Listen or View PDF -- great
• Tuning 4: A 1 Listen or View PDF
• Tuning 5: A 2 Listen or View PDF -- great
• Tuning 6: A/C 1 Listen or View PDF -- great
• Tuning 7: Bb 1 Listen or View PDF -- good
• Tuning 8: Bb 2 Listen or View PDF -- great
• Tuning 9: B 1 Listen or View PDF -- good
• Tuning 10: C 1 Listen or View PDF -- good
• Tuning 11: C 2 Listen or View PDF
• Tuning 12: E mixolydian 1 Listen or View PDF -- great
• Tuning 13: F# 1 Listen or View PDF -- great
• Tuning 14: G 1 Listen or View PDF
• Tuning 15: Gminor 1 Listen or View PDF -- great

There are many rules at work in Thomas Bothe's tunings, but one of the main ones (which he could have learned from the Sansula's standard tuning) is that the lower row of five notes should make one idea while the upper row of four notes makes a different idea, and that these two ideas should work together musically to help create a song. "Idea" is like "chord", except that "idea" might be a chord with one extra note thrown in - like 5-1-2-3. The 5-1-3 is the triad (inverted with the 5th in the bass), and the 2 is a note in the scale which is NOT in the chord, but which connects 1 and 3 none the less (as in "do-re-mi" = "1-2-3").

So, in essentially all of these tunings, you can make lovely music JUST by playing on the lower five notes for a few seconds and then switching to the upper four notes for a while, going back and forth between these two states. You can work on fancy "thumb picking patterns" - but how fancy can you get with just 4 or 5 notes to worry about at a time?

While the 14-Note 2B kalimbas easily had three of four musical ideas that would jump out of them, the 9-Note kalimbas have two basic ideas that can be stretched to make somewhat more complicated music. This means this is a great kalimba for someone who feels they cannot make music. Or it is a great kalimba for a well-versed technical musician who wants to let go for a bit and drift among the clouds. Or it is a great kalimba to introduce music to a young child. While the tines are soft and could be played by a 5 year old child, I would recommend that an adult help with retuning.

For more complicated playing, play the notes in the upper or lower sets of tines, but substitute one note from the other set - play around with that to see which notes work the best.

You can purchase the 2B 9 Note Kalimba with or without the resonator, and with or without the stylish protective bag, at special prices for a limited time. Base price for the 9-Note is $99, and the frame resonator and bag are extra. These prices include any retuning you might want.

To see the 9-Note kalimba in action with the resonator frame, check out the video I made the very morning I first laid eyes on the amazing 9-Note kalimba. If you don't want to get the resonator, you can attach the 2B kalimba to a frame drum or a small box using the magnetic feet. Two differences between this video and the 2B kalimbas I am selling: 1) there are three magnetic feet on the 2B's I am selling, and 2) the resonator box is light colored wood.