October 9, 2010
Kalimba Magic NEWS
The What-Do-You-Feel Kalimba Contest
A Contest That Anyone Can Enter
Lately I've been trying to come up with the core message of Kalimba Magic. The kalimba is the quintessential African instrument? The kalimba is a real instrument capable of playing real music? The kalimba is a simple instrument that even a young child, or even an infirm elder can make beautiful music with? Kalimba Magic gives you the tools to help you do whatever you want with the kalimba?
Finally, yesterday it hit me as I was taking a walk while playing kalimba. As soon as I started playing, all of the hard things in my life, all the bills, the friction between me and my ex, the work I promised to do for the Quaker Meeting but haven't done yet - it all just went bye-bye and the peace and joy started flowing with the music. So I have decided that the core message of Kalimba Magic is simply this: Playing kalimba makes you feel good.
Does it work for everybody? I don't think so - there are some people who pick up the kalimba and work at it and just don't get it. The kalimba requires a fundamentally different way of looking at music, and some people don't turn on to it in the time they have given themselves to try it out. But there are a lot of people who just pick up the kalimba and they connect with something good and something deep right away. I know this to be true, because I see this pattern in the emails that I get from hundreds of people: "Wow, I just got my kalimba in the mail, and I started playing it, and magic started to happen, and I could not put it down, and next thing I knew it was 2:30 am! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
In fact, here is one I got a few days ago from Gina Johnson:
I was just sitting here in my room, lights were low and I was just playing the kalimba in a random manner, just closing my eyes and plucking away, quite relaxed... when all of a sudden, my heart just "opened up" and the most beautiful sounds started coming out of the box! I KNOW it wasn't me, Brother Mark, because I've only had these kalimbas (the G tuned treble and the "Maurice White" tuned treble) for a short time and I'm NOWHERE near able to yet call myself a kalimba player!
As the sounds came forth, it was as if the instrument and I were ONE... I was "swept away", caught up into some kind of "loop" and as my thumbs moved around the keys (tines), I began to weep like a baby. I have NO idea why.
Thank you for all of the help in choosing my instruments (or did they choose ME?) and for the encouragement as I learn to allow the kalimba to PLAY ME.
—Gina R. Johnson
What's the Contest?
Thank you for your beautiful words, Gina. When things like this happen, it is easy to understand why people in Africa might have believed their ancestors spoke to them through kalimba music. And one might even imagine that this is still going on today, that the spirits of long gone African ancestors can come to us through our playing.
But those are Gina's words. I want to hear YOUR words. What do YOU feel when you play the kalimba?
Over a year ago when I announced that I wanted to do more contests, some newer kalimba players wrote back that they wanted a contest that didn't put them at a disadvantage for being a newer kalimba player. This contest is perfect for anyone who has picked up the kalimba and felt the love and joy that the instrument has to offer. There will actually be TWO contests with the same basic idea.
1. Write us what you feel when you play the kalimba. By NOVEMBER 1, 2010: Let us know in your own written words how you feel when you play kalimba. We will use the best blurbs on our web site, attributed to each author. There may be up to 3 winners and the winning submissions will share $150 in Kalimba Magic store credit. (We'll decide if there are one, two, or three winners when we read the submissions.)
2. Show us what you feel in a video. By DECEMBER 1, 2010: Express how playing kalimba makes you feel in a YouTube video. Write a song, play kalimba, get creative. Send us a link to the video and a few sentences describing who you are. As with part 1 of this contest, there may be 3 winners and the winning submissions will share $150 in Kalimba Magic store credit. (We'll decide if there are one, two, or three winners when we read the submissions.)
No One Won August's Contest! Here's the Answer to the Mystery Question
Nobody claimed the prize from last month's contest, which was - "Find the major error in the Kalimba Magic Catalog." OK, the answer: in the end of the catalog, there are three pages of instructional bits. The text on one page indicates that the song is "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", and the CD also has "Swing Low". However, the tablature is for a different song - "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen". This is the major blunder to which I referred, but nobody recognized it.
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