February 15, 2007
Be Open to the Possibilities

Rick, who shared with us how he constructed a kalimba hiking case a few weeks back, wrote me this:

Hey, the clip you posted of the sansula sounds really sweet. Beautiful tone and the wah wah sounds really strong and even. The tuning reminds me of the aki bono tuning I have on one of my sanzas--in fact, the one I took to the waterfall the day I wrote you. Funny story: New Year's Day it rained really heavy. Two days later I went back to the stream and brought the same sanza, but the stream was high and running fast, and as soon as I sat down and began to play, I thought, "Nope, wrong tuning." LOL... I coulda changed it easily enough, but what I ended up doing was trying to find a way to play in that tuning using more fourths and fifths and trying not to emphasize the two half steps. Found a couple of nice patterns I'll try to develop further. An enjoyable time and worth the hike. I'll tell ya, I play a bunch of instruments, but I'd be hard pressed to name one that brings me more joy or takes me to the places the kalimba does. I bet you feel the same. --Rick Tark

Play to the situation at hand. It may require a different style, a different tuning, or a different instrument. Be open to the possibilities. --Mark

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