KarlBeat

e-Learning for Customer

A. Setting up your Kalimba

1. Tunning:
   • ☕ Easy Guide How To Tune Your Kalimba | Kalimba Guide ✨
   • Basic tuning instructions for 8 key mini kalimba thumb piano!
   • How to tune a Kalimba

   The most important thing you can do to sound good is to keep your kalimba in tune. If anyone tells you that kalimba tuning doesn’t matter, don’t believe them! Tunings were passed down in African villages from generation to generation.

   Of course, it is easier if you use an app for tuning on your smartphone other than purchasing a tuner. Here we suggest 10 apps for Kalimba: https://kalimbahq.com/kalimba-tuning-apps/

2. Buzzes:

   Sometimes one of your tines will just start to buzz when you play it. This is due to some dirt or rust between the tine and the bridge (the thin metal cylinder the tines rest on).

   “What should you do?”

   Cut out a skinny piece of paper, about as wide as the bridge, lift the tine up, slide the piece of paper between the tine and the bridge, let the tine down, and tear off the extra paper. This home-made kalimba tine washer should stop the buzzing. It may also make your tine go out of tune, so be ready to tune again.

3. Glissando: Glissando

   A glissando is when a trombone slides a note up or down, or when a harp strums many notes almost at once in a swoosh of sound. You can make a glissando on the kalimba by placing your thumb nail on a low note (such as tine 1) and sliding the thumb nail towards the shorter tines. A glissando will work with two, three, or all four tines on a side. Because the notes of the scale go back and forth on the kalimba, a glissando will skip every other note, and will make a nice chord.

4. Thumb pain?

   Maybe beginners experience thumb pain for a few weeks until they have good nails and small calluses under the nails.

5. Thumb nail care:

   Your thumb nails are your picks, they will protect your thumb, so take good care of them. Nail polish, Hard as Nails, or even super glue can help strengthen your nails and prevent breakage. Don’t let your nails get too long, or they will break more easily.

B. How To Read a Tablature

Listen to the audio: If you don’t understand how to read the tablature, try listening to the audio. If you are connected to the internet, clicking on the link will direct you into a website to download the MP3 sound file I have recorded for that song.

1. Kalimba Tablature

   https://www.kalimbamagic.com/downloads/music8note/t01b.mp3

   Music is about two different things at once: it is about playing the right notes at the right time. The tablature is just like a graph. Start at the bottom of the tablature and move up. Two notes side by side mean you need to play two notes at the same time.

   
2. The Different Type Of Notes

   https://www.kalimbamagic.com/downloads/music8note/t02.mp3

   The different note symbols shown on this page are played for a different number of beats. If you already know how to read music, these will look familiar to you.

   

   

C. Example

Listen to the audio: If you don’t understand how to read the tablature, try listening to the audio. If you are connected to the internet, clicking on the link will direct you into a website to download the MP3 sound file I have recorded for that song.

• Mary had a little lamb: https://www.kalimbamagic.com/downloads/music8note/t03.mp3
• The Major Scale: https://www.kalimbamagic.com/downloads/music8note/t04.mp3

D. Practice with your Kalimba

Listen to the audio: If you don’t understand how to read the tablature, try listening to the audio. If you are connected to the internet, clicking on the link will direct you into a website to download the MP3 sound file I have recorded for that song.

Some tablatures you just need to have the key, some are not - knowing what notes your kalimba has in terms of “1, 2, 3, 4, 5...” - the notes of the scale.

• Twinkle Twinkle Little Star: https://www.kalimbamagic.com/downloads/music8note/t41.mp3
• Jingle Bell: https://www.kalimbamagic.com/downloads/music8note/t23.mp3
• The Alphabet Song: https://www.kalimbamagic.com/downloads/music8note/t13.mp3
• Brahm's Lullaby: https://www.kalimbamagic.com/downloads/music8note/t34.mp3

TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE STAR

JINGLE BELLS

THE ALPHABET SONG

BRAHM's LULLABY

THANK YOU