 Jan. 17, 2011Vol. 6, Num. 1 |
Kalimba Magic NEWS |
What's the Buzz at Kalimba Magic?
Miscellaneous headlines and items of interest
We have a lot going on at Kalimba Magic. Most exciting to me, I am breaking into the education communities by presenting at the Arizona Music Educators' conference. We are also going to two Music Therapy conferences to present CMTE kalimba training, and we will be present at the Tucson Festival of Books. All in all, this will be a busy and exciting spring!
Sansula and Hokema Kalimba Prices Coming Down
On the other hand, the prices of Sansulas and Hokema Kalimbas will be coming down. 18 months ago, I took on the experiment of being the Sansula wholesale distributor in the U.S. This required me to provide a factor of 2.0 profit margin between what I sold the Sansulas to other retailers for and my own retail prices (most music stores insist on such a profit margin, and they don't like to sell instruments for more than what the internet sellers are offering the instruments for).
The experiment failed, and I am no longer offering the cover to other Hokema retailers, which means I no longer need to cover the 2.0 profit margin factor, which means that I can go back to Sansula prices more similar to what I was selling them for over a year ago. I will still offer Sansulas and Hokema kalimbas in bulk orders at wholesale prices to retailers.
All that said, I regret to inform the kalimba community that I have discontinued sales of the standard Sansula. This instrument has a very delicate skin, and I have grown weary of dealing with the disappointment of people who accidentally broke their instruments or who got broken instruments in the mail.
Kalimba Magic will continue to sell the Renaissance Sansula with the Remo synthetic head, the Deluxe Sansula with the goat skin head, and the Pocket Sansula with no resonator head. All of these Sansulas are robust and I have not heard of any cases of breakage, though they should all be handled with care.
A final piece of Sansula news: customers in Europe will be happy to learn that my Sansula Book is now being published in Germany. Hokema will not have to pay for shipping across the Atlantic, so they will be able to sell them for much less at music shops across Europe.
One Million Kalimba Views on YouTube
On Friday Jan 14, 2011, Kalimba Magic's YouTube videos reached one million views. Over the last two months, we have averaged just over 2000 views per day. We now have 80 kalimba videos on our YouTube channel, demonstrating how our kalimbas look and sound, and providing tutorial how to play them. Our star video is First Look Inside, with over 270,000 views. This is the first song I wrote on kalimba about 13 years ago, and it is the oldest video I have up on the YouTube channel. I have provided the tablature for First Look Inside in an earlier newsletter article.
This first million views on YouTube is like a confirmation that we are on the right track at Kalimba Magic. Just before I started Kalimba Magic in June 2005, I had a vision of leading, inspiring and teaching one million people to play the kalimba, transforming the world by bringing the peace and joy and wonder and excitement of kalimba music to a million people, a million households, a million neighborhoods. I have come nowhere near selling one million kalimbas, but this high mark in YouTube views and this accelerating growth reassures my mind and heart that in my lifetime, my work will somehow bring one million people to the kalimba.
Arizona Music Educators Association Conference, Tempe AZ, Feb 3-5
The Arizona Music Educators Association is having their annual conference Feb 3-5 in Tempe, Arizona, and Kalimba Magic will be there! We will be there as a vendor, but we will also be giving a presentation on using the kalimba in schools, 8-9am on Feb 4. We will educate the educators on using many different types of kalimbas appropriate for children of ages 5 through 18. Some kalimbas can be used as Orff instruments. Some kalimbas can be used by small teams, played in turn, to create chord progressions spontaneously. Some kalimbas can be used to study 1000 year old African music and to understand that the music these ancients created was quite advanced and also had many similarities to our modern music. And some kalimbas could be used in orchestras or jazz bands alongside the band and orchestra instruments we all know and love.
If you would like to attend the AMEA conference in Tempe, see the conference program.
Tucson Festival of Books, March 12-13
Kalimba Magic has created over two dozen 17 physical books and 16 instructional downloads for educating people on playing the various types of kalimbas we sell. Each kalimba has a different range and note layout, plays different music and, therefore, requires its own distinct book(s). There are so many kalimbas out there you can get on eBay or wherever, but most of them have essentially no instructional information. At Kalimba Magic, we stand behind our kalimbas and provide you with the support and information you need to learn to play the kalimbas we sell.
We are rather proud of the phenomenal accomplishment of creating 17 different books, and to show the Tucson community the amazing work we are doing, we will be presenting our books and the kalimbas that go with them as a vendor at the Tucson Festival of Books on the University of Arizona mall on March 12-13, 2011. If you are around, stop by and see us!
Music Therapy CMTEs in Wisconsin and Massachussetts, March 2011
This spring, I will be leading two five-hour CMTEs (Continuing Music Therapy Education) sessions on using different kalimbas in Music Therapy:
GLR AMTA: Thursday, March 24, in Wisconsin
NER AMTA: Thursday, March 31, or Saturday, April 2, in Massachussets
If you want to take one of these trainings, grow your thumb nails so they extend about 1/16 - 1/8 of an inch beyond your thumb flesh. The obvious way to take one of these classes is to register for the appropriate regional conference, but if you are in the area and only want to register for the kalimba CMTE training, contact me and I'll figure out how you can do that.
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