Africa

If you play music long enough, you will learn that not all musical moments are created equally. Sometimes, the music is magical. It is a blessing to get to experience magical musical moments in any capacity… but it is truly amazing when a magical musical moment just happens to you. It doesn’t matter if you are a high functioning musician or a novice player. If you play long enough in a sitting, you might find that your playing is getting better and better. I love it when I can feel my mind and body learning, improving… sometimes day by day, but also sometimes hour by hour, or even minute by

Check out the tablature to the left, and the thumb positions on the kalimba. First thing: the kalimba tablature is a map of the kalimba tines. You can see the bottom of one tablature staff just above my index finger – the bottom of the tabs is shaped like the kalimba tines! Also, the painted tines on the kalimba map to the shaded tines on the tab. Second thing: there are two “staves” of “staffs” of tablature, one on the left and one on the right. The left one comes first… and you play the music from the bottom to the top before going to the next staff. Third thing:

While the name “Kalimba” is one of the African names for one of the traditional African instruments, the modern kalimba owes a lot to a white man: Hugh Tracey. Hugh Tracey became entranced by traditional African music. He traveled tens of thousands of miles around Africa, recording and documenting traditional African music. He also collected African instruments, and became something of an expert of the various instrument designs made by people across Africa. Hugh Tracey utilized the design choices of several different traditional African instruments, but also made his own innovations, such as the western tuning and note layout. So, when you see the modern Chinese-made kalimbas, remember the essential