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He understood the potential loss of traditional African music to the encroachment of the west, and worked his whole life to preserve it Hugh Tracey is a complex and important historical figure in the contemporary kalimba world. I should start by stating my relationship to Hugh Tracey: for the last 33 years, I have played instruments he designed, and for about half that time I have made most of my living by selling Hugh Tracey kalimbas. So I might be a little prejudiced, but Hugh Tracey’s work was clearly pivotal in the trajectory of modern lamellaphones. Hugh Tracey, a white European man, cherished traditional African music and made it his life’s

It was the original hugh tracey kalimba   The Treble kalimba maintains a special place in the history of the kalimba: when Hugh Tracey began to market his new invention in the early 1950s, it was the 17-Note Treble kalimba. The Alto kalimba started selling in the 1960s. The Pentatonic kalimba came in the 1970s as an answer to Earth, Wind and Fire, and the African-tuned Karimba came around 1980, fulfilling Andrew Tracey’s dream to popularize this traditional African instrument.  But the Hugh Tracey Treble was THE original Hugh Tracey kalimba. Kalimba Magic also offers Treble kalimbas in the keys of Bb and D. These are my own modifications of

We have resources for the 17-Note Karimba in the key of A, the 15-Note in F (mbira nyunga nyunga), and Student Karimba All of the instruments in the karimba family are very closely related, in fact Andrew Tracey hypothesizes that they all possess the original mbira tuning from 1300 years ago when the first metal-tined instruments were made. The 8-Note version may actually be the exact replica of the original mbira. Jege Tapera played a 13-note version. It was copied and key-shifted to make the 15-note version of the instrument in the key of F, which is now commonly known as the mbira nyunga nyunga. And AMI has been making

The mystery of the evolving names of the kalimba Evidence indicates that in 1950, kalimba and karimba were used more or less interchangeably to describe any traditional African thumb piano. Seventy years ago, mbira dzavadzimu meant exactly what it does now – a particular traditional Shona thumb piano – and the mbira nyunga nyunga probably was not even a thing yet. Seventy years ago was just before Hugh Tracey began to build and sell a new instrument which he called a kalimba, which combined features of many traditional instruments and had a western tuning.                                 

Called the “Original Mbira” and the “Kalimba Core” by Andrew Tracey Learn more about the Student Karimba here I have heard from people who were disappointed because they bought “too much kalimba” for themselves – meaning they got more notes than they were prepared to deal with (often, 15 or 17 notes turns out to be too many notes for a beginner). For these people, I recommend they start with a 10-note instrument, as this will be easier to get your head around than the larger kalimbas. Similarly, when people tell me they are disappointed that their “African” kalimba doesn’t play African music, I point them in the direction of

Two Different Colors lets you take instruction from two different sources Learn more about Kalimba Tablature Why are some tines painted? Mainly to help you keep track of where you are on the instrument… but also to assist you in transferring notes from kalimba tablature to the kalimba. There are now two different systems for painting the 17-Note kalimba in C. The Chinese system paints 5 tines, including the central tine. On the other hand, the Kalimba Magic system paints 6 tines. If you want to use the Kalimba Magic instructional materials for the 17-Note kalimba in C, you need to use the Kalimba Magic painting system. If you want

This tiny bit of advanced music theory is very simple on the Freygish karimba CLick to Download 8-page PDF of Freygish Tablature Have you ever heard of a “minor major 7” chord? How about a “half diminished 7” chord? Yeah, at the time I had been playing kalimba as long as you probably have, I didn’t either. On the Freygish karimba, you can make the “C minor major 7” chord by simply playing the four tines on the left side of the upper row. You can play the “D half diminished 7” chord by playing the four tines on the right side of the upper row. In other words, you get

A new eBook with material for this exotic minor tuning Get the A minor Karimba Download Here is a true story. Lex, a Tucson friend of mine who has hit upon hard times, visited us at Kalimba Magic the other day. Months earlier he had given away his beloved African-tuned karimba so he could put a bad relationship which had included that karimba into the past. But he really needed to make music, and he came over to see what instrument I had that might speak to him. While we were talking, we wandered past where Sara was editing the new A minor Karimba book, with an A minor karimba next to her that she would

This eBook is for the Kwanongoma-style 15-Note Karimba in F Get the New Nyunga Nyunga Download Now! The mbira nyunga nyunga, or the 15-Note karimba in F has only been around in this form since 1960. Thousands of Rhodesian (now Zimbabwean) and South African youth were taught the traditional songs on this delightful instrument at the Kwanongoma College of African Music. And, remarkably, it could well be that more than half of the notes on this instrument (and most of the songs for it) are essentially the same as what is thought to be the original tuning of an 8-note instrument invented some 1300 years ago. And now, we are