November 9, 2007
How Do You Tune a 7-Note Indonesian Coconut Shell Kalimba?

Now, the Hugh Tracey Kalimba is NOT a traditional instrument. On the other hand, neither is the Indonesian kalimba, though it may be more rustic. The Hugh Tracey is probably more capable of playing real music, though that begs the question of "What is real music?"

Traditional instruments in Africa had hundreds of different tunings, depending on where in Africa and exactly which kind of instrument it was.

As to what notes your kalimba should be tuned to: I've played on 7-note kalimbas made in Indonesia, with the tines flared out at the ends, either built from a coconut or a round gourd. Is this you? I did not get to a real tuning when I played on that one.

I encourage you to work with me on this. There will be a "lowest good note" and a "highest good note". Lowest may be set by the gourd size - very low notes will lose resonance, so you want the lowest note to be just above that point. And very high notes might buzz or worse, go THUD. Once you determine what the lowest and highest notes are, then we can get creative. We don't need to go to those extremes (i.e., if you had only 4 notes you might not want to do that - if you had 20 notes you might very well want to go to both extremes). We can fill the space between low and high with different sorts of intervals.

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