August 1, 2006
Making a Wah-Wah Sound

If your kalimba has sound holes, you can totally change the tone of your kalimba by covering those sound holes. First play every note of your kalimba without covering the holes. Then try taping an index card over the front and back holes and again play every note. The difference in tone before and after gives you an idea of what is possible. Now, remove the hole coverings, and cover the front hole with your thumb and the back holes with your fingers. You will find that the low and high notes are not very affected by this, but the notes in the middle of the kalimba's range are much louder than the other notes when the holes are open, and are about as loud as the other notes when the hole is closed. Basically, the kalimba comes with the mid-range boosted, and putting your thumb and fingers over the holes removes that mid-range boost.

For an explanation and photos, see page 7 of the introduction to the Treble Fundamentals book.

 

 

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