November 23, 2006
Tuning with the Native American Flute

More about the pentatonic kalimba/pentatonic scale.

The pentatonic scale is a scale that has been used around the world for thousands of years. Two ancient pentatonic instruments have been used widely in recent years among people who are seeking a connection to the ancient in their modern world: the Native American flute and the pentatonic kalimba. These ancient instruments both have sounds which can pierce our modern world and take us back to a beautiful inner place.

If you are playing the pentatonic kalimba along with a Native American flute, you need to make sure you are in a proper key and a proper tuning. The Hugh Tracey Pentatonic Kalimba comes tuned to G major, which means the flute player needs to use an E minor (E mode 1) flute. On the other hand, it is simple to tune to G Minor, which means the flute player uses a G mode 1 flute (What's a mode?). You can retune to other keys as needed, but if your flute player has several keys, bring him or her to you as much as possible.

Even after the flute key has been selected, you should ensure your tuning is accurate. Native American flutes are sometimes not tuned to concert pitch, and their tuning is also affected by humidity and temperature. Also, one or more notes could be sharp or flat to make the intervals deviate from the proper western scale intervals. SO, the kalimba can be retuned to exactly match a particular flute's notes.