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Mark Holdaway

“Intro to 17-Note Kalimba in C” Now Available as a Download

    With every 17-Note Kalimba in C we sell, and with every Hugh Tracey Treble Chromatic Kalimba we sell, we include a hard copy of the 32 page booklet “Intro to 17-Note Kalimba in C”. This is a tablature-based booklet that shows you the ropes on the kalimba. Due to customer requests, this booklet is now available as a PDF download with live links to sound recordings. This is for the 6-painted note setup scheme. eBook: Introduction to the 17-Note Kaimba in C We also have another version of this download created for the 5-painted note setup: eBook: Intro to the 17-Note Kalimba in C in 5-Painted System And

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Mark Holdaway

Kalimba Americana – it is it’s Own Genre!

I grew up strumming folk guitar and singing the songs of my country. I had a wonderful music teacher in elementary school, and I quickly learned to love music – especially the Americana songs we sang in music class. As I grew up, I learned a deeper and more present side of Americana – Bob Dylan, The Band, Woodie Guthrie… and the diverse strands of the fabric of our country’s rich tapestry of musical traditions. And then, in 1986, I fell in love with the kalimba, and started my own kalimba journey. I played Grateful Dead and Bob Dylan songs on the kalimba. The kalimba is like that. It will

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Blog
Mark Holdaway

Welcome to “365 Days to Kalimba Mastery, Volume II” for 17/C Kalimba

Welcome – Know that the Sound Files for this ebook are coming very soon. Section 1 files are up today, I will aim to get a new section worth of sound files up every two days, so we will be done in March 2023 sometime. OK – I Will Be Getting a Video Up Here Soon – Mark Holdaway ( Feb 21 2023) If you have feedback about the “365 Days/Volume II” ebook, please submit them to me through the CONTACT ME page.

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Blog
Mark Holdaway

A Virtual Kalimba to Explore the Moon-10 Tunings With!

With so many Moon-10 Kalimba Tunings, how do you pick one? How do you keep track? There is a cool new tool at Kalimba Magic that will help you understand the nature of each Moon-10 Tuning: the Moon-10 Virtual Kalimba. To access the Virtual Kalimba, simply go to the Moon-10 Product Page, and click on the “TRY TO PLAY” tab, or click on the icon in the lower right corner with two hands on a kalimba.   When you click on one or the other, up pops the Virtual Kalimba tab. If you are on your computer, try clicking on the playing tips of the tines, and you will hear

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Mark Holdaway

Desert Moon – Exotic Music on a Moon-10 Kalimba

I love the enchanting feeling of this Middle eastern Kalimba tuning! As you can see, this tuning pretty much plays itself! (I haven’t written any books for this Desert Moon Tuning… but you don’t really need a book for it.) If you order a Moon-10 Kalimba, make sure to select “Desert Moon Tuning”. The Moon-10 Kalimba is usually tuned to a C pentatonic scale… but there are many other tunings you can put this really cool kalimba into. I absolutely love the Desert Moon Tuning… one of the exotic tunings I created for the Moon-10 kalimba a few years ago. Forget about learning to play this song or that song

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Blog
Mark Holdaway

The Hokema B15 Kalimba – Great Sound, Great Capabilities

Hokema has long made top notch kalimbas. They became really famous when they made their Sansulas with two rows of narrow, very smooth tines. The two rows really improved the playability of the instrument, but with only 9 notes? The music it produced was beautiful, easy to create, but rather limited in scope. However: this here B15 kalimba? I haven’t been this excited to play a new kalimba in a long time! I am overjoyed. Now Hokema has released the B15, a 15-Note instrument covering exactly two octaves of the key of G major. This is the same tuning as the Hugh Tracey Alto Kalimba. But as the notes lead

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Blog
Mark Holdaway

“Volume II of 365 Days to Kalimba Mastery” is Delayed

I’m sorry to say that the promised Volume II of “365 Days to Kalimba Mastery” is not finished. That is, if you are one of the 100+ people who pre-ordered it at half price… you will have to wait another few weeks.  You can still pre-order it now for  half price at $6.  I’ll come through… hopefully by December 1 2022. I do have a good track record – I was able to put out Volume I on time… and I have written over 100 kalimba books and kalimba downloads over the last 17 years. Creating these books and helping people learn to play so many different kalimbas has been

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Blog
Mark Holdaway

Blood Moon – More Exotic Music on the Moon-10 Kalimba

This “mixolydian pentatonic” scale, derived from Francis Bebey’s 1970s tuning, makes cool groovy music!  For decades, I knew about the major pentatonic scale and the minor pentatonic scale. They were actually the same scale, just starting at different points in the scale. Kalimba has taught me that there are actually a whole bunch of pentatonic scales. A “pentataonic scale” is any scale that has five different notes per octave. The first pentatonic scales we learn about are the black notes on a piano. They come in groups of 2 (between C, D, and E) and then in groups of 3 (between F, G, A and B). Then you repeat

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Blog
Mark Holdaway

New Book of Blank Kalimba Tablature for 10 Different Kalimba Setups

For each of 10 popular kalimba setups, this book includes: pages of blank chord charts, pages of blank tablature, and several useful alternative tunings. A great notebook to capture and save your kalimba compositions. Get the Blank Tablature eBook Get the Blank Tablature Book If you get the eBook, you can print out as many pages of each as you want. If you get the blank tabs hardcopy book… we will send you both the hardcopy book and the ebook so you will never run out! Here is the back cover of the Kalimba Magic Bank Tablature book – showing you which kalimbas we cover in the book.   The

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