Mark Holdaway

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Mark Holdaway

Star-13 Kalimba in G Tuning – bundled with 50 pages of inspirational lessons

Here is the Star-13 in G Tuning, playing Bob Marley’s “Is This Love”. OK, I’ll reckon straight with you. I have too many of the Star-13 Kalimbas in stock. To sell my business, I need to get the inventory way down. To sell these kalimbas off at a discount, I am doing what I should have done when I started selling them in 2021: write articulate and helpful instructional materials to help you get the most out of the Star-13 Kalimba. But instead of doing that work, I was tending to my ill wife. (It is complicated, but she is doing much better now.) No complaints. My life is great.

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Mark Holdaway

Desert Moon Kalimba – with a great new instructional download

Desert Moon Tuning The Moon-10 Kalimba, made by Magadi, really caught me eye. I loved the way they felt and sounded. The notes have a clear, beautiful sound that sustains for over 10 seconds, much longer than the typical kalimba. And I especially loved the variety of tunings I could get out of the Moon-10. Today, I am selling off the Moon-10 Kalimba in the Desert Moon Tuning, a 6-tone Middle Eastern scale that is so cool and easy to play. Plus, I include for free a 37-page instructional PDF with live links to sound files. This download will show you all of the tricks I figured out on this

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Mark Holdaway

SaReGaMa Style Karimbas 60% Off, through March 31 2024

Save 60% on These SaReGaMa tuned Karimbas With Coupon Code SaRe60 SaReGaMa’s Lotus Tuned Karimba SaReGaMa is the stage name of a new age musical artist. About 15 years ago, someone gifted him a Hugh Tracey African-tuned Karimba, but it was out of tune. He set out on a path exploring the tunings it was capable of. Every week or two, he would take the instrument apart and put it back together again with a different key, a different tuning, and a different note organization. The Lotus tuning, which SaReGaMa made to play music for his newborn daughter, was the first one to become insanely popular. Remember to use the

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Mark Holdaway

Moon-10 Kalimba in Golden Moon or Silver Moon Tunings – with custom instructional downloads, at ridiculous prices

Silver Moon Tuning The Moon-10 Kalimba, made by Magadi, really caught me eye. I loved the way they felt and sounded. And I especially loved the variety of tunings I could get out of the Moon-10. And now, I still have a few hundred of them that I need to sell before I can retire. So, you and I can help each other here. I can give you a joyful ride, and you can help me sell out of kalimbas. Today, I am selling off the Moon-10 Kalimba in two different diatonic tunings. Diatonic? That means they have all the notes from the major scale: “Do Re Mi Fa So

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Mark Holdaway

The New 96-page Alto Chromatic Download is Here!

This 96-Page PDF download has all sorts of great instruction for the Hugh Tracey Alto Chromatic Kalimba. It is the book you have been waiting for. As far as I know, it is the only book for the chromatic kalimba.   Better late than never. As I am moving toward retirement, I am finding more time to do the projects I really want to do. And this Chromatic book is one of those projects. I have been selling chromatic kalimbas for 15 years, and there has never been a book to instruct you on playing them. Yes, this book presents unique challenges, but here we are! This book takes three

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Mark Holdaway

New Sales and New Discounts as I Unspool My Inventory

The following new coupon codes are valid through March 1 2024: Coupon code Chromatic50 gets you 50% off Hugh Tracey Chromatic Kalimbas. There are four Hugh Tracey Chromatic models, and they are all on sale at half off! The Alto Chromatic Kalimba, mounted on a resonant box. This one has 15 notes on the front side and 11 chromatic notes on the back side. The Celeste Alto Chromatic Kalimba, mounted on a solid board. This has the same 15/11 tine setup as the Alto Chromatic. The Treble Chromatic Kalimba, mounted on a resonant box. This one has 17 notes on the front side and either 13 or 17 chromatic notes

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Mark Holdaway

Andrew Tracey’s Memorial Service on YouTube

Andrew Tracy’s Memorial Service   That is Andrew Tracey when I met him in 2008, with a photo of his father Hugh Tracey (circa 1960) looking over his shoulder. These two men are giants in the kalimba world. Their work is related to the preservation and understanding of the African kalimba family of instruments, and the creation of new kalimba designs. Hugh Tracey spent decades traveling about southern Africa, recording, learning, and documenting the various traditional African instruments he encountered in the hinterlands. And of course, he made the world’s first kalimba business in 1954: African Musical Instruments (AMI). However, it was largely through the work of his sons, Andrew

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Mark Holdaway

Andrew Tracey, Son of Hugh Tracey, Has Left This Earth. But He Left Us His Karimbas.

That is Andrew Tracey when I met him in 2008, with a photo of his father Hugh Tracey (circa 1960) looking over his shoulder. These two men are giants in the kalimba world. Their work is related to the preservation and understanding of the African kalimba family of instruments, and the creation of new kalimba designs. Hugh Tracey spent decades traveling about southern Africa, recording, learning, and documenting the various traditional African instruments he encountered in the hinterlands. And of course, he made the world’s first kalimba business in 1954: African Musical Instruments (AMI). However, it was largely through the work of his sons, Andrew and Paul Tracey, that the

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Blog
Mark Holdaway

The Story of the Karimba – and Why You Should Get One at 60% Savings

Right now, you can get the 17-Note Hugh Tracey African Tuned Karimba, the 17-Note Karimba + PU, or the 8-Note Goshen Box Student Karimba at 60% off.  Use coupon code Karimba60 now through Feb 3 2024 to get 60% off. The Tunings? It is called the African Tuned Karimba because its traditional tuning is in between major and minor – that is, many of the notes are in between western notes. It turns out that African tunings generally had near perfect octaves and near perfect fifths and fourths, but other intervals were up for grabs. And a big part of Hugh Tracey’s work was documenting those African scales. “Karimba” is

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