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I was with someone while they had a panic attack – fortunately I had my kalimba I was visiting with a friend the other day when, out of the blue, she started to have a panic attack. I had something like a panic attack once – it was not a very enjoyable experience.  It seemed like the pressure of the entire world was pressing down on my heart and chest. I have never been with someone else who was experiencing a panic attack, and I don’t know much about them. While I immediately recognized that something was wrong, I didn’t really have a clue.  Her breath became shallow and rapid,

NOSTALGIC, SENSUAL, MYSTERIOUS, SWEET…. THIS KALIMBA PLAYS TRULY UNIQUE MUSIC. THE IMPROVED AND ENHANCED DOWNLOAD IS AVAILABLE NOW. IF YOU HAVE IT ALREADY, UPGRADE IT FOR FREE! Get the Freygish Download   “The Freygish-tuned karimba plays delightful songs, mostly in C harmonic minor.  This instrument brings alive baroque melodies and harmonies, romantic music box waltzes, fiery Middle-Eastern music, and hot Latino cumbia – nostalgic, sensual, mysterious and sweet.  This karimba plays unique music that is not played by any other.” (From the back cover of the Freygish karimba download.) The instrument that you can hear right now, which is playing in the video below, is the Freygish karimba, and the

Playing Karimba for Ayahuasca Ceremonies – PART 1 Learning to play the karimba and facilitating Ceremonies for the local Ayahuasca Church accompanied each other into my life. The karimba brightened my days during a particularly explicit flare-up of an old state of auto-immunity (see the blog post “Thumbing the Karimba at Chronic Pain”). The beads rattled like yapping puppy teeth, wanting to cuddle, and I was delighted. We made noise together. It was a good, wholesome, and healthy noise. In contrast, the Ayahuasca Ceremonies held by the Church lasted all night, ended at dawn, and were conducted in silence. Under the influence of medicine that expands your senses like so

Learning tablature, and a new book, opened up the exciting and beautiful world of traditional African songs. By leslee morrison “Bungu Utete” was the first Karimba song Leslee learned For me, learning the African tuned karimba with its repertoire of ancient African music is an  infusion of new excitement and inspiration in my playing. I call it “Vitamin K”. The instructions that came along with my new Hugh Tracey 17-note karimba said that it is a beginner’s instrument; but with 17 tines instead of the 11 that I was familiar with, and with the additional “buzzers,” I discovered that a lot of new and exciting sound can come out of

A karimba song that echoes more complex mbira music structure Click to download karimba tablature for the song “Kukaiwa” “Kukaiwa” is one of my favorite songs in our recently published “About 30 Traditional Karimba Songs” book and instructional download.  This arrangement comes to us from kalimba maven Ivodne Galatea, who mentions that CD liner notes indicate that “Kukaiwa” may be traditional, or it may be original to Dumisani Maraire. Mariaire brought the marimba band movement to the western United States in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. He may also be the man who first brought the karimba, which he called mbira nyunga nyunga, to the USA.   This arrangement of

Following the lead of traditional mbira music works great on modern day kalimbas too! Click to download the tablature for the song you’re hearing, “Pfumvu Paruzevha” How do you play two kalimbas together?  There is no particular tradition for doing that, but there is a deep, wide, and wild tradition of playing two mbira dzavadzimu together – one plays the kushaura part (the leading part) and the other plays the kutsinhira part (the following part).  Often the same high notes are played in the two parts, but the kutsinhira part’s high notes will echo the kushaura part’s high notes.  If a particular high note is repeated in the first part,

Two Great Kalimbas that go Great Together! Click to visit the Alto / Pentatonic Package product page One of my favorite things to do is to play kalimba duets with a close friend. The Hugh Tracey Alto kalimba is one of the most popular and most capable of all kalimbas.  In many ways, it is the gold standard by which all other kalimbas are measured.  I have written more books and music for the Alto Kalimba than for any other, and very often it is still one of my Altos (I have them in G, C, and F now) that I grab when I walk out the door. The Hugh Tracey

Please study this application of mindfulness to the process of learning to play specific music on kalimba Photo by Glen Davis. Kalimba by Andrew Masters Have you ever struggled to learn a piece of music on the kalimba, really studied in detail the exact notes you need to play?  It seems that the kalimba is a simple instrument – there are only a few tines for your left thumb and a few tines for the right thumb.  Surely this is simple.  You should be able to master this instrument after a week of playing it, right? But as soon as you approach a challenging song on the kalimba (and “challenging”

The tremendous assistance that kalimba tablature can provide in arranging and learning songs…plus a free CD or 25% coupon! Click to download the Greensleeves tablature in PDF I have a symbiotic relationship with kalimba tablature:  I work really hard to notate really wonderful music in tablature.  Through working on this tablature, I come to be able to play music that is more difficult and more polished than I would otherwise be able to perform. I make kalimba tablature better, and kalimba tablature makes me better.  To get your free Greensleeves tablature PDF, which will work for 8-Note, Alto, or Bb Treble kalimbas, click the image above. What is the best