October 9, 2010

Volume 5, Number 7

Kalimba Magic NEWS

• In This Issue
• Message from Mark: 1,000,000 YouTube Views!
• Introducing Kalimbas Day with This 20% Off Sale!
• Kalimba Workshop, January 2011
• Kalimba of the Month: Thomas Bothe's 2B/14L
• Hugh Tracey Kalimba Birthplace Threatened
• Play the Songs You Love on the Kalimba
• The What-Do-You-Feel Kalimba Contest
• Sansula in Beautiful E Tuning
• Free Download for the Catania 6-Note
• Kalimba Community

Play the Songs You Love on the Kalimba
How to Use Rise Up Singing

Rise Up Singing

One of the best resources available to help you with a sing-along is the book Rise Up Singing, which includes the words and chord progressions for 1200 songs. I would bet that you are familiar with a good chunk of these songs, say between 100 and 300 - or maybe more. Because the book includes only words and chord progressions, it is very handy to already be familiar with melodies.

Chords provide rhythmic and harmonic support for the sung melody line. But if you want to play those chords on the kalimba, you need to know how to make those chords, what to do with those chords, and how to change key to the right key for your kalimba, when necessary. For example, "Blowin' In The Wind" is in the key of C in the book, but to play this on the Alto, you would need to change this to the key of G. How can you learn how to make use of this wonderful songbook in order to be able to play all these great songs on your kalimba?

Page out of Rise Up Singing

Well, right now our Tuesday Tips (elementary concepts) and Wednesday Tips (more advanced concepts) are covering everything you need to know to turn the info in Rise Up Singing into kalimba music. We have begun these tips series with a discussion of the basic I-IV-V chord progression and how to arpeggiate these chords. Arpeggiation on the kalimba is a lot like finger picking on the guitar. Many of the songs in Rise Up Singing are classic folk tunes intended to be played on a guitar - so it's no surprise that they sound great on the kalimba. Coming up in the Tuesday/Wednesday tips is how to transpose to different keys, more complex chord progressions and several other topics.

This information will put you in the driver's seat musically. Once you understand how these simple songs are put together, you will start to hear the chords in every song on the radio. You will also better understand how to create your own songs.

For the month of October, Rise up Singing will be on sale for $15. That's just over one cent per song! Of course, the Tips on using Rise Up Singing are free, but the memories and joy that come from singing with and leading others in song? Priceless.