Hey, there are two more Hugh Tracey box pentatonic kalimbas in stock. If you are fast.

My personal kalimba collection is a bit excessive. I have five different Hugh Tracey box pentatonic kalimbas, all in different tunings. Why? Because they are fun, easy-to-play instruments that I love to play, and I love to put them in other people’s hands and watching them cut loose as I play guitar to back them up.

But “Kalimba Magic the Business” (as opposed to “me and my personal collection”) still has two more Hugh Tracey box pentatonic kalimbas. We sold out of the box pentatonics with Pickup many months ago, sorry. And as African Musical Instruments (AMI) no longer makes kalimbas, these two will be among the last Hugh Tracey box pentatonic kalimbas for sale in the world. Meaning, by the time you read these words, either you should jump on one right now… or else they will already have sold.

What makes the pentatonic kalimba so fun to play? The same attributes that make it hard to play most specific songs you might play on the kalimba. The pentatonic scale has only 5 notes per octave, or 11 notes to cover two octaves plus the repeated root on the top. This means that some notes in the regular “Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do” scale will be missing. This makes “extra space” between adjacent notes in the scale. And the tines are physically more spread out as well – the bridge is the same size as the Alto Kalimba’s bridge, which accommodates 15 tines. With only 11 tines in this space, there is more space between the tines. So it is easier to play. This makes it a great instrument to improvise on.

Get one of the remaining Hugh Tracey Box Pentatonic Kalimbas.

The penatonic kalimbas shipped from Africa in a G Major Pentatonic tuning, but you might want to check out these exotic pentatonic tunings available on the Hugh Tracey Pentatonic Kalimba.

If you get a pentatonic kalimba, consider also getting the Instructional Download: Playing the Pentatonic Kalimba (for G major AND G minor pentatonic tunings).

We DO have more celeste pentatonic (ie, board mounted) kalimbas and celeste pentatonic + Pickup kalimbas in stock. They will have the same notes, and be tuned to thee same exotic tunings as the box pentatonic… but you won’t be able to do the “wah wah” with the resonant sound cavity as you can with the box pentatonic. But hey, you can plug a + Pickup model into an amplifier with effects pedal and you can go to town that way.

Box pentatonic kaimba in G minor tuning

Box pentatonic kaimba in G major tuning

Box pentatonic kaimba in F7 Frances Bebe tuning