Copyright ©
2005-2012
Mark Holdaway
2005-2012
Mark Holdaway
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Many diverse cultures around the globe have used the pentatonic scale in their music. Native Americans, Indonesians, Africans, and Chinese people all invented it independently. This scale has a universality that bridges time and space. Listen to sample pentatonic music.
What Makes the Pentatonic Kalimba So Special?The minor pentatonic scale is the exact same "Blues Scale" that every beginning guitarist learns. In fact, it is even in the same key: E minor! So, you can amaze your high school buddies (new or old): while they are doing the twelve bar blues on their guitars, you can whip out your Pentatonic kalimba and solo circles around them. Several of my musically accomplished jamming buddies just LOVE to play the pentatonic kalimba, because they can just totally get into the music making without worrying about that great inhibitor called "critical thought." I think the most important aspect of the pentatonic scale is that the half-step intervals have been removed. Hence, it is not possible to play two notes at the same time that sound really bad. It is sometimes called the "no fault" scale, because people who know literally nothing about music can just go at it as a physical activity (plink-plank-plunk) without fear of messing up -- and in doing so can find their own way by listening to the sounds or phrases that they find most appealing. That means the pentatonic kalimba is ideal for children. In fact, the Waldorf school uses the pentatonic scale exclusively until the children are about 9 years old. It also means the pentatonic kalimba is a perfect instrument for meditation, for inner journeying, for spacing out to relieve stress. Can you remember back to the day when your diatonic kalimba still smelled new, and everything you did with it was filled with wonder and amazement? It seemed there was magic in every note or chord you played. Now that you understand a bit more about how the kalimba works, isn't it a bit like finding out the Wizard of Oz was just the man behind the curtain? And so you might get stuck doing the same things, because now you know what to expect from them. Remember the days when you had no idea what the kalimba would sound like if you did THIS or THAT, and WOW! 90% of the time it just sounded wonderful none-the-less. Trying to squeeze out the mistakes and make it 99.9% perfect, you can also squeeze out the magic. Well, you can go back to those magical days without giving up any of the progress you've gained on the ALTO or TREBLE. Just pick up a Pentatonic. The octaves are still on the opposite side of the kalimba (because 5 and 7 are both odd numbers). But if you try to play anything with your tried and true thumb-picking patterns, what you will get is an intersection between the internal logic of the Pentatonic kalimba and your own internal patterns, creating something new. And the coolest part? That sense of newness and magic translates back to your Alto or Treble. Try it -- you'll like it! Here's some more pentatonic music. Pentatonic Models Available from Kalimba MagicKalimba Magic offers the Box or Celeste Pentatonic, both can come with pickup.
The Pentatonic Kalimba TuningThe Hugh Tracey pentatonic kalimba comes in the key of G major, but you can tune it to other scales as well. The G minor scale is very nice - having the minor root in the bass note gives a very different feel to the kalimba's music. 
The G major pentatonic tuning is the same as an E minor pentatonic scale,
while the G minor pentatonic tuning is the same as a Bb major pentatonic scale.
The Ake Bono Japanese and Hitzaskier Persian tunings
are popular alternative tunings that can be used on the
11-note pentatonic kalimba.
What is the Pentatonic Scale?Listen to the chromatic, diatonic, and pentatonic scales. The chromatic scale (12 tone scale) has every note on the piano, black or white. Chrom means color, and this scale indicates it has every color, every note there is. You can play absolutely anything in western music (ie, non-micro tonal music) with instruments tuned to this scale. I have heard of chromatic kalimbas, but have never seen one. Listen to the chromatic scale. The diatonic scale (7 tone scale) is a subset of the chromatic scale: it just has the white notes on the piano ("Do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do" -- wait, that's 8 notes isn't it? Oops, that's 7 unique notes: only count one of the "Do"'s, dude). You can probably play 90% of the songs you are interested in on a diatonically tuned instrument (unless you are seriously into Stravinsky or Jazz). Most kalimbas (Hugh Tracey Alto & Treble, 8-note kalimbas, Thumb Fun Kalimbas) are tuned to the diatonic scale. OK, the pentatonic scale (5 tone scale) uses the same notes as the diatonic scale, but two of the notes have been removed so there are no half-step intervals ("Do-re-mi----sol-la----Do"). You can see that these notes make the same pattern as the black notes on a piano: a cluster of three, a space, a cluster of two, a space. If you start on "Do" and play the next 5 notes up on the this pattern, you have the major pentatonic scale. If you start on "La" and play the next 5 notes up (ie, going around the pattern for a second time), you have the minor pentatonic scale. One scale breathes both hot and cold! The pentatonic scale is missing its 4 and 7. It has 1-2-3---5-6---8. It turns out that the 7 is a very important note in western harmony. It is so close to the tonic (8 note, or 1 note as well), and it is in the V chord. So, when you play the V chord, the 7 note pushes you into the 1 chord, or the root chord, or the tonic. (I just think of it as a harmonic "home base".) Furthermore, many western chord progressions are I-IV-V. How are we to make a IV chord when there is no 4 note to be the root? (It turns out there is a way, but it is sort of a trick.) So harmonically the pentatonic scale challenges two fundamental aspects of our comfortable western harmony. In fact, this scale forces us to re-examine our musical structures and challenges us to come up with something that sounds more like Africa than a more standard diatonic kalimba. A minor clarification: I have described how to make the diatonic and pentatonic scales on the piano in the key of C. The Hugh Tracey kalimbas come tuned in G (you can change that if you want, but that is a different subject). The intervals are all the same, even though the exact notes are not. OK, so the pentatonic is a simplification of an already simplified scale. What can you play with a pentatonic scale? It turns out that about 90% of the songs you might think of playing CAN NOT be played on the pentatonic scale. So, if your goal is to play Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring at your sister's wedding, you should NOT get this kalimba. One of the more famous things you CAN play with the pentatonic kalimba is the intro guitar riff from the Motown hit My Girl. But unlike Jesu, you can play this right out of the box. Books for the Pentatonic Kalimba
Tips of the Day for the Pentatonic KalimbaThere is a series of 16 Tips of the Day on the pentatonic kalimba, including some material from the pentatonic book. There is a series of 4 Tips of the Day from the Pentatonic Songbook. What is the Major Pentatonic Scale? What is the Minor Pentatonic Scale? Still Have Pentatonic Kalimba Questions?If you still have questions after reading this, please send me a message to let me know what you need to find out.
Last updated Nov 2011
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