Tuesday, November 7, 2006
The 1-4-5 Progression on the Kalimba

The "1-4-5" progression (or I-IV-V progression, if you are picky about detail) is one of the mainstays of popular, rock, classical, and world music. Here is the backbone of a 1-4-5 on the kalimba:

The treble part reproduces the alto part note for note, but an octave higher. The first two measures are the "I" chord, or G. The third measure is the "IV" chord, or C; and the last measure is the "V" chord, or D. We are not actually making the entire chord here, but just the "root" and the "fifth" of each chord. Always remember: on a Hugh Tracey Alto or Treble kalimba, "root-fifth" looks like this, skipping a tine. By the way, in the last measure we do something different, even though I probably forgot to do that different thing in the recording:

The first four cycles of this recording demonstrate this elementary Tip of the Day. The next four cycles show how to do tomorrow's Tip of the Day. It might take us years to get to the rest of the song, though!