Mark Holdaway

I am retiring soon, and I have not found a buyer for Kalimba Magic, in part because the inventory to income ratio is too high. So, I am selling off said inventory in as orderly a way as I can think of. A number of people have asked me: So, when you close Kalimba Magic’s doors, will the website disappear? Will the support recordings for the kalimba instructional downloads go away? The Current Plan I am selling off all Kalimba Magic inventory, all kalimbas, all hard copy books, and all CDs. It will take several months to sell off all the inventory. But at some point in the spring of

This new instructional download takes you from simple to amazing in 46 pages! Catania Decorative Afroharp The Afroharp is a legendary 13-note, two level kalimba created and manufactured for a short period in late 1960s Chicago.  Because we feel that the Afroharp is a valuable and compelling instrument, Kalimba Magic has been selling new instruments in the Afroharp tuning for several months.  Vintage Afroharps are virtually impossible to acquire. I feel incredibly lucky to have recently had one come into my possession. Read on to learn how this vintage Afroharp came to me, what’s special about the Afroharp, how this modern kalimba looks and sounds in a video, and more about

This is part of what “Available Only At Kalimba Magic” really means When they get an order, most of the world’s kalimba purveyors just pull an instrument off the shelf, pack it in a box, and put a label on it. At Kalimba Magic, we do so much more. We fine-tune the instrument. We paint the tines for guidance. Sometimes we retune the instrument to a different tuning. And sometimes we just take the whole thing apart, rearrange the kalimba, and rebuild it as a totally different beast. That is how we make the Celtic D Kalimba, SaReGaMa karimbas, and a whole host of custom-tuned instruments. Follow along as I work

Get the Celtic-D Karimba. Get the Celtic-D Karimba Download. The Celtic-D is a specialty karimba designed to play Celtic music in the key of D. It covers two octaves of the D major scale, plus a lower C# just below the two octaves, and a higher E just above the two octaves.   Swallowtail Jig on Celtic-D Karimba

This will help you learn this challenging karimba solo CLick to Download 8-page PDF of Freygish Tablature Do you know SaReGaMa’s story? He received a Hugh Tracey Karimba as a gift, but it was out of tune, so he started inventing his own tunings. Every few weeks, he would change the notes on the karimba, until it played the kind of music he wanted to play just then. He would play the karimba in its new tuning for a few days and become comfortable with it. Then, he would record and videotape an improvisation on that new karimba tuning. That is how we got SaReGaMa Lotus, Air, and Freygish tunings.

OK, I’m an advanced kalimba player, and yes, I do love playing the 17-Note Kalimba because it offers so many musical possibilities and can play hundreds of thousands of songs. (People also ask me about the 21 note. I do have a 21-Note kalimba, but I have not bonded with it. Partly because it has SO many notes, and partly because I don’t like the “sound and feel” of the lowest notes.) But I also love the freedom and simplicity that is available from the 10-Note Kalimba. The tines are smoother. The tines are wider. There is more space between each tine. And with only 10 tines, the music is

This book is the capstone to my career as the Kalimba Magician, and as the title says, its for ANY kalimba. If you pre-ordered this product and have not received my email yet, please contact me and I’ll hook you up! Even more, it is a great resource for most musicians. These are the notes of my own journey through music, and I imagine most of this would be helpful to musicians, beginners, intermediate, and advanced. These are the tips that are going to help you become a real musician. About two years ago, I found out that about a dozen of my books had been pirated. It wasn’t an

Here are our first customer reviews of my newest book, “Just the Tips”. First, written by K.P.: “While I’ve only just kind of skimmed the book, I love it.  As I may have said, up till now I’ve mostly improvised.  More interested in relaxation, meditation, communing with the sounds, so this book will be wonderful. These days I’m really drawn to the instruments with two levels of tines, and all these tips will be helpful (including using super glue to fix the small hangnail). BTW, it took a bit of time to figure this out, but the ‘Books’ app on an iPhone is a place one can store PDFs and find