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Mark Holdaway

Learn to Play the 10-Note Kalimba – Revised

Four high quality instructional downloads will supercharge your kalimba journey Four ebooks for the 10-Note Kalimba Kalimba Magic is the leader in kalimba instructional materials. We take that work to the next level with these four instructional eBooks for the 10-Note Kalimba in C. Three of the downloads are formatted for iPad or tablet, but you can use them on your smartphone (or any computer). Each page teaches a bite-sized bit of music. As this music is all cyclical, you repeat those four measures about a dozen times, becoming more sturdy as you go. If you want to hear what each song or pattern sounds like when played by yours

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Blog
Mark Holdaway

Duets for 10-Note and 17-Note Kalimbas

The new ebook will show you some great ways two kalimbas can play together Get the 10-Note / 17-Note Duets eBook The 10-Note and 17-Note kalimbas work really well together, mainly because their notes (tines) match exactly.  This book is a broad exploration of some of the ways that two kalimbas can fit together. Typically, the 17-Note parts will be more advanced than the 10-Note parts, but not always! Playing kalimba together is an amazing way to be close to another human being. This book is intended to help people get close together. Grandparent and grandchild? Yes! Parent and child? Yes! Friends? Yes! Lovers? Spouses? Yes!! I invite you to

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Blog
Mark Holdaway

A New 10-Note Kalimba in C

Get your Kalimba Magic 10-Note Kalimba today! The 10-Note Kalimba is a great instrument to start on. Great for a child, or for an adult who wants to feel the joy of music without the extra baggage of a larger kalimba. The big thing to remember is that these are the same 10 notes as the lower, central 10-Notes of the 17-Note Kalimba – meaning anything you learn to play on this kalimba can be played immediately on the 17-Note Kalimba. Playing “Mwana Aboyi Mama” on the 10-Note Kalimba. These are very sweet kalimbas, with soft, wide tines, modestly spaced, that are easy on young thumbs and beginners of all

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Blog
Mark Holdaway

Easy Christmas Music for 10-Note Kalimba

This is Perfect for the Beginning Kalimba Player Get your 10-Note Christmas Kalimba Download Today! This collection of Christmas favorites has been arranged specifically for the 10-Note kalimba in C. This 59-page PDF download with clickable links to MP3 files has tablature for 28 different carols. Now that is quite something, really… so few notes and such a huge repertoire! Read on to find my secret technique for expanding the range of this tiny instrument. This book has enough to keep you learning carols each holiday season for years! Exactly how do we get 28 Christmas songs out of a very basic 10-Note kalimba? By retuning one tine (B to

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Blog
Mark Holdaway

Playing well Together: 10-Note and 17-Note Heart Kalimbas

A great pair of kalimbas for a beginner and an experienced player. Sweet video, too! You Can Get a 10-Note / 17-Note Kalimba Pair Yes, I have been making the point about the 10-Note and the 17-Note kalimbas for months: the lower notes (the 10 inner tines) on the 17-Note kalimba in C are an exact match to the notes of the 10-Note kalimba in C. One consequence: if playing on 17 notes is too hard, hide 7 of those tines and just play it as if it were a 10-Note, using the 10-Note downloads. Another consequence: if you get the 10-Note and do well with it, you can then

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Blog
Mark Holdaway

African Music on the 10-Note Kalimba in C

A great many people now own kalimbas made in China.  These kalimbas apparently were created with an intent to play western pop songs. However, you can also play traditional African music on them… and I will show you how. It turns out there is a traditional 8-Note karimba that is particularly important in the evolutionary tree of African kalimbas. It is thought to be the original tuning, the grandmother of the African-tuned Karimba and the mbira dzavadzimu. I call it the Student Karimba and Andrew Tracey, Hugh Tracey’s son, called it the  “Original Mbira”. The notes on this 8-Note instrument are arranged differently than the new 10-Note kalimbas, but the

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Mark Holdaway

The Star-13 Kalimba – Available in Diverse Tunings for Different Musics!

The Star-13 is a very interesting kalimba. It is built on a resonant frame similar to the Sansula… so it can do that cool “wah-wah” effect. However, the pentatonic 9-Note Sansula is mainly an instrument to just kick back and make cool sounds with, while this diatonic 13-Note kalimba is an instrument to play songs on. Here is the Star-13 in standard C tuning. Even though it is in C, the low note is G, the 5th of C… which is very useful for songs as “Amazing Grace” or “As I Went Down to the River to Pray”. Here is the Star-13 Kalimba in G major tuning. Why in G

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Blog
Mark Holdaway

The Olive-9 Kalimba – Cool for Improvisation, and On Sale Now!

Hey, if you are looking for a new and different experience with kalimba, consider the Pentatonic 9-Note Olive-9 Kalimba. While most 17–Note kalimbas these days implicitly push a precise playing mindset, this kalimba is all about fun and freedom: Of course, within that fun and freedom, you can still do some awesome things: But improvisation is key on this cool kalikmba: This kalimba has a routed out body – which means you can make the cool “wah wah” effect by placing it on a flat surface as you play, and then lifting it up: And every Olive-9 Kalimba shipped from Kalimba Magic contains this 36 page manual to help you

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Blog
Mark Holdaway

Do You Have an Old Kalimba in Need of Tuning Up? The Kalimba Doctor Can Help

Kalimba Magic Gives You the Tools You Need to Succeed Does your kalimba need tuning? Read Here! Does your kalimba have a buzzy tine? Read Here! Do you need to paint your tines? Read Here!   BUT, what if the kalimba job is beyond you? The Kalimba Doctors can Help I’m Mark… but it turns out that my associate Mike is just as skilled as I am at getting your kalimba looking and sounding its best. I recently went away to a wedding, but before I hopped onto that plane, I left my two prized kalimbas – my very-first-ever blond Bb Treble from circa 1970, and my ancient Alto Kalimba

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