Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Charming Grasshoppers with the Kalimba

While at our yearly Quaker gathering in Ghost Ranch near Abique, NM, I saw a most unusual use for the kalimba. A mom had bought an 8-Note kalimba for her young children, and they immediately took to playing melodies on it. The flat board makes this a kalimba rugged enough to gracefully endure being toted around Ghost Ranch by these very young kalimba enthusiasts.

The activity which I was most interested in though, was the charming of grasshoppers. One child would catch a grasshopper in the wild and then bring it to the child playing kalimba. "I've got a wild one - will you charm it for me?" The grasshopper was placed on the kalimba's body while the charmer would then proceed to play--and the grasshopper would truly appear to be charmed--sitting still there on the board, listening to the vibrations.

 

 

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