Mark Holdaway

A Journey through Kalimba Land – Where can you go? Original artwork by Tim and Mark Holdaway There are two broadly different types of gifts one can get for the holidays: one can get things, or one can get experiences.  When we fill our lives up with things, we can actually feel emptier.  When we fill our lives up with experiences, we are enriched.  We remember our experiences better than we remember our things.  And we are more present to our experiences. To some, the kalimba looks a lot like a thing.  If you hang it on the wall or leave it on your coffee table as an ornament, it

What are these different note symbols, and how long does each one last? In a recent blog post I described the the tablature as a map of the kalimba tines which shows you the right tines to play to accomplish a particular melody or song. If you are a newcomer to reading any kind of music, and find it impossible to know how to “see” tablature, or to know what the different symbols in kalimba tablature really mean, don’t despair.  This blog post is just for you – we talk about what the “tine map” means, look at the different types of notes and how long each kind lasts, and

You can start at different points in the cycle to make different songs Click to download Tablature for the mbira song Chaminuka Sometime between 600 and 1000 years ago in the Zambezi Valley of southeastern Africa, something amazing happened – four-phrase mbira music was born.  This revolutionized the music that had been played for a very long time, and greatly increased its sophistication, sort of like going from nursery songs to Pachelbel’s Canon. The new musical structure was complex enough to support a wide range of songs.  In fact, new songs in this vein continue to be created today. There is basically an infinite supply of mbira-type music. In this

UNLOCK YOUR KALIMBA-PLAYING POTENTIAL WITH THESE MUSICAL BUILDING BLOCKS THAT WORK WITH ANY DIATONIC KALIMBA Here we present seven of the most basic building blocks of kalimba music. They are based on simple thumb routines which the body can easily remember.  (This group is directly applicable to diatonic kalimbas, ones that cover the notes “Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do” in some scale.) Each of these routines can be applied in different ways to different tines, and this will produce different music based on the same sort of easy pattern. For each of the seven basic moves, we give you a very short bit of tablature to illustrate

LEARN THE USEFUL TECHNIQUE OF HOW AND WHERE TO ADD CHORDS TO A SIMPLE MELODY Click to download free tablature for “Away in a Manger” Often people think of the kalimba as a very simple instrument.  However, it stands proudly with the harp, the guitar, and the keyboard as instruments that can play both a melody and musical accompaniment – in other words, you can play complex music with the kalimba. I’d like to show you a few rules of thumb that are very useful in creating a more interesting and profound-sounding song, starting with an easy, familiar melody. It will help you know where, when and how to create

A download of peace and protest songs for the Alto Kalimba Get the Peace Songs Downoad for Alto Kalimba   Things in the world may be looking difficult for you, no matter where you are.  Here in the US, I am one of more than a few (more like millions) who are disillusioned and extremely concerned about many things…including climate change and the prospects for dealing with it, now that a new presidential administration is coming in – one that seems to offer nothing good for our world’s environment, and actually is looking downright destructive.  A few months ago, I felt optimistically that we had a chance at preventing the

FAST SAME-SIDE PLAYING: AN ESSENTIAL STRENGTH FOR MAKING MBIRA MUSIC ON KALIMBA These exercises will help you play traditional mbira music on the Alto kalimba   To me, traditional African mbira music is one of the best musics I have ever experienced.  I feel it’s the pinnacle of African music.  It has pure logic, with a spiritual core.  Even though its structure is many centuries old, every time I hear it, it sounds fresh and modern to me.  (You can hear two wonderful mbira songs right now by clicking in Related Articles below, on “Listen to Mark…” or the YouTube song below it.) This music is magical, speaking to a

You may be surprised – you can play this simple carol and you can read tablature! Click to download free tablature for “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” I’ve heard this story from more than a hundred people by now: people had been living under the burden of the belief that they were simply unable to make music, but then they discovered the kalimba, and they discovered they could make music on the kalimba, and they were even appreciated for the music they were able to make. If you are reading these words, you probably know you can make music.  But you might be convinced that you cannot read tablature.  This