Kalimba Magic NEWS

In last month's message, I talked about the tragic shootings that occurred in Tucson on January 8th. The Kalimba Magic newsletter is sent to 5000 people around the world, and it was tempting to make a call for healing, for respect from members of opposing political parties that have increasingly become locked in nasty and heated rhetoric. The fallout that ensued from that message should not have taken me so much by surprise...

For the month of February, all 18 Kalimba Magic instructional downloads are half price with the coupon code HALFDOWN. These downloads range between $5 and $10 - so when you buy one at half price you will be paying only $2.50 to $5, i.e., it's practically like tossing a handful of change into a wishing pool or leaving a tip after breakfast in a diner - only you get to learn some music that could stay with you for the rest of your life...

Kalimba Magic now offers another Student Karimba for use with the new Student Karimba book! This one is made by the Africans at AMI in Grahamstown, South Africa. The Hugh Tracey Student Karimba can also be recast into the 10-note Kankobela. The Kankobela was the instrument documented by A.M. Jones in his 1950 article The Kalimba of the Lala Tribe, Northern Rhodesia...

We have some great ideas for how to use the kalimba as an educational tool, including the highly versatile, yet intuitive chordal kalimba choirs. We offer you two informative handouts: the Music Educators' Handout for Using the Kalimba in the Classroom and the Kalimba History Handout for Black History Month...

Kalimba Magic has made a huge national and international footprint, but we are relatively invisible in our own backyard of Tucson, Arizona. I am trying to change that by doing more local activities, and the Tucson Festival of Books is a great opportunity for us to show the world one of the things we do best - write kalimba instructional books...

Kalimba Magic will be offering a 5 hour CMTE (Continuing Music Therapy Education) program on March 24, 2011. If you are a music therapist attending the GLR Meeting on March 24-27, I invite you to sign up and participate in this opportunity to strengthen your kalimba skills and knowledge of using different kalimbas with different populations and/or age groups...

Kalimba Magic will be offering a 5 hour CMTE (Continuing Music Therapy Education) program on March 31, 2011. If you are a music therapist attending the New England Regional Meeting from March 31 to April 2, I invite you to sign up and participate in this opportunity to strengthen your kalimba skills and knowledge of using different kalimbas with different populations and/or age groups...

I get one or two dozen emails each day asking me all sorts of questions, and I answer almost every one. Some questions get asked over and over again - so I try to answer those ones really well, put them in an "Ask Mark" article, and then send a link to the appropriate article when someone asks the question again...

• Do kalimbas come pre-tuned?
• What's the significance of the painted tines?
• How long does it take to learn to play in a new tuning?

Holy Kalimba! We STILL have had no submissions to these two contests - so we are pushing both contests back by a month - AGAIN. Folks, this is like free money, but nobody is jumping at it! Yes, it's true, you will have to do some work - make a video for the first contest, or learn something, write some music, and make a recording for the second contest. But nobody is doing it - so if you just basically submit something, you have a good chance of winning...

• Seeking Other Dutch Kalimba Players!
• Josh B. Humphrey, Kalimba Maker
• Kevin Lahue Finds a Cool Sansula Case
• Kalimba Video: Over the Rainbows
• An Assortment of Kalimba Videos