November 16, 2006
Extra Space Between the Pentatonic Tines

More about the pentatonic kalimba/pentatonic scale.

The Treble kalimbas have the tines oh so close together. That's great if you are a small child or if you have fingers familiar with precision work. But it took me more than 10 years to really appreciate the Treble. The Alto is a lot more accommodating for big ol' hands like mine, and even the Alto tines seem a bit close together.

One thing you can always do is shape your thumb nails for your kalimba. But you might not want to do that!

So this is a great feature of the Pentatonic kalimba: you have the same range, the same size as the Alto kalimba, but instead of having 15 notes stuck in there, there are only 11 notes.

More leg room, more head room, more room between the tines means you don't have to be so precise in your movements. It means you can be more in that trance-state you get into when you play the kalimba. You can just let go and be in the groove, in the moment, and let your thumbs just sort of fly around to wherever they need to be!

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