Monday, March 26, 2007
Colin Walcott Tuning for the 8-Note Kalimba

First, a few words about Mind/Body/Spirit. Today's Tip introduces a tuning you can apply to your 8-Note kalimba. Seemingly, that doesn't fit with the Mind/BodySpirit concept that is supposed to happen every Monday.

Consider it like this: the tuning is the part that is handed down to us, from the ancestors, from tradition, or perhaps through revelation or inspiration. The tuning is the essential nature of the kalimba. It defines the universe of notes in which you and the kalimba will be dancing, creating, breathing life into this piece of wood with a few pieces of metal on it. Given the tuning, all possibilities for that tuning are somehow spelled out, pre-specified, and it is our job to discover the secrets of this new or ancient path. Spirit, flowing into Mind, flowing out through your Body. OR, your Body runs over the possibilities with the help of your Mind to guide you, opening the possibility of connection to Spirit.

This week, we focus on Colin Walcott's tuning for an 8-note kalimba, as was presented in the N. Scott Robinson interview.

Listen to this scale in relation to other scales

We have raised the pitch of this tuning from E up to C, in part because the 8-Note kalimbas don't want to be as low as E (they will resonate with that note). There are many ways to understand this tuning. If the C is the root, you have the 1, 4, and 5 notes (C, F, G), so it's good for chord progressions. However, there is no 3rd, major or minor, so the modality is ambiguous. You could start on the G, and you are in a minor pentatonic scale - but you have to work to keep on top of this interpretation, as there is only one G, so you can't make a complete octave anywhere on the 8-note. If you make the Bb be the root, you have a major pentatonic scale, but again, you can't make a full octave, so this interpretation is not really supported by this tuning either. There are other modes you can make too. So, this tuning is sort of a thoughtful, primitive, ambiguous thing. Actually, a good place to wonder while you wander.

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