Using the Kalimba in Music EducationMark Holdaway, PhD

mark@kalimbamagic.com(520) 488-7641

www.kalimbamagic.com

Abstract: Bamboo-tined African lamellaphones appeared about 3000 years ago, and metal-tined lamellaphones appeard about 1300 years ago, but the kalimba as we know it was first made in the 1950s by Hugh Tracey, who combined many design features of different traditional instruments, but with an alternating note layout and a Western tuning. While the kalimba has long been a powerful symbol of African music and unique African achieve-ment, there have been essentially no instructional materials guiding people on how to use the kalimba in western music. Over the last six years, I have dedicated my life to writing kalimba instructional materials that elucidate the principles of the kalimba so that the kalimba might be better used by children, teens, adults, and elders.

This presentation touches on ways of using the kalimba with very young children with no formal musical knowl-edge, as an Orff instrument, as a replacement for the recorder (a first instrument reading musical notation), as a world music instrument, as an example of a truly ancient instrument from approximately 1300 years ago, as an instrument of black and African pride, as a modern folk instrument, as an instrument capable of playing hymns, classical, rock, new age, and jazz music, and as a laboratory for understanding music theory.

Simple: each player makes a six-note phrase in their chordal kalimba: ||: F | C7 :||Next: try four-note phrases cycling through I-IV-I-V: ||: F | Bb | F | C7 :||Moderate: use relative minors, the II chord, etc; improvise among: F Dm7 G7 BbM7 C7Advanced: figure out the chords you need to accompany a song you want to do, and set up those chords.

5-Note Hokema Kalimbas tuned to different chords can be played sequentially by different players to create melodies from arpeggiated chords. This is a great introduction to chord progressions and illustrates how a simple mo-tif can be repeatedly modulated to construct longer melodic phrases. Ages 5-15

The 6-Note Catania Kalimba covers one octave of the pen-tatonic scale and can be used improvisationally as an Orff instrument in an ensemble of other instruments, or it can be used with “paint by numbers” notation. Ages 6-10

3 2 1 2 3 3 3 2 2 2 3 5 5Ma-ry had a lit-tle lamb lit-tle lamb lit-tle lamb

3 2 1 2 3 3 3 3 2 2 3 2 1Ma-ry had a lit-tle lamb whose fleece was white as snow.

Similar instructional materials are available for the 8-Note and 12-Note Catania Kalimbas.

The 8-Note or 9-Note Student Karimba has an idiosyncratic note layout that is present in all ancient lamellaphones in southern Africa, and has been called the “kalimba core” and has been hypothesized to be the “original African mbira” from 1300 years ago that gave rise to more complex instruments such as the mbira dzavadzimu.

Traditional and original music for this instrument is available in the book The Student Karimba, and much of it is appro-priate for elementary school kids. Playing traditional African music on this instrument is an exercise in ethnomusicology - it gives us an opportunity to compare African chord progressions and musical forms to western music, and also gives us a real appreciation for the genius of the African mind circa 700 AD.

It is my personal mission to promote this instrument in the schools.

Ages 6-15

The 8-Note Kalimba is a perfect recorder substitite. It covers one octave of the diatonic scale. Music is available for it in numbers-based and tablature notation. Three tines can be painted to aid in “keeping your place” on the kalimba, inter-facing left and right side tines, and transferring notes from tablature to the kalimba itself.

Experience gained on the 8-Note diatonic kalimba is directly transferable to larger diatonic kalimbas.

Note: Alaska guitar finger picks can be used on the thumbs!Ages 6-12

Kalimba tablature is a map of the kalimba that uses otherwise standard music notation.

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The Two Octave 11-Note Pentatonic Kalimba is a great instrument to improvise on. I would describe it as an Orff instrument, but Maurice White of Earth Wind and Fire made his career on improvising on the pentatonic kalimba in front of a full R&B/rock band.

Because the scale requires alternating left-right strokes, it is relatively easy to play quickly, and the pentatonic scale - aka the no fault scale - permits inexperienced players to do the equivalent of guitar shredding. The student can think of the ka-limba just in terms of root notes and geometrical patterns, and doesn’t need to con-sider notes or harmonic frameworks at all. It is more of a body-based intelligence.

The instructor could play an underlying chord progression on the guitar or piano while one or more students improvise on the pentatonic kalimba. Other partici-pants can play rhythm instruments or even bass kalimba. Harmony of the underlying chord progression: You can play standard I-IV-V progressions in G major - G-C-D. You can play in the relative minor, with Em, A or Am (it doesn’t matter as the pentatonic is lacking the 4 or C note), and Bm or B (the B’s major 3rd, D#, will clash with the kalimba’s D, but that is a bluesy kind of good clash). Or there is an ambiguous mode - neither major nor minor - based in A (it has 1, 2, 4, 5, flat 7), so you can play chord progressions using A or Am, D, and Em.

Ages 9 and up

11-Note Pentatonic Kalimba in G major. G minor is also a popular tuning.

Instructional books for the diatonic kalimbas:

Alto Fundamentals*The Alto Hymnal*

Classical Alto*African American Spirituals for the Alto Kalimba

Christmas Carols for the Alto Kalimba*Advanced Christmas Carols for the Alto Kalimba*

Key Flexibility for Diatonic Kalimbas: it is simple to retune around the circle of 5ths (by change the F#s into F naturals for example), but then the root note changes location: the note layout is very different, and it is harder on the player.

On the other hand, every note can be retuned by a half step or a whole step - like putting a capo on a guitar, or picking up a harmonica in a different key.

Alto Kalimba: E F F# G Ab A

Bb Treble Kalimba: Ab A Bb B C

D Treble Kalimba: C Db D Eb E

All of these kalimbas can “read” the Alto tablature in these books and instructional downloads:

Instructional downloads for diatonic kalimbas:

10 Trad. Karimba Pieces Arranged for Alto12 Easter Hymns for the Alto Kalimba*

Kalimba Americana

* These books or downloads are also available in versions for the standard Treble Kalimba.

Note: please read about the diatonic kalimbas on page 4

before you read this!

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Diatonic Kalimbas, such as the 15-Note Alto, the 17-Note Treble, or the Bb and D families of Treble kalimbas can play between 80 and 90% of the non-classical, non-jazz songs you might think of playing. With two octaves or just over two octaves, the range ex-ceeds most people’s vocal range, and it is possible to play melodies while accompanying oneself with chords, harmony, or counterpoint.

The examples below are for the 15-Note Alto kalimba. Ages 10 and up

Triads are made by playing three adjacent notes in a glissando or arpeggio. Octaves are on opposite sides.

Scales are made by playing notes alternating right and left and incrementing outward

(higher) or inward (lower).

Melody only! Melody and a chordal accompaniment.

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Use the kalimba as a laboratory for Music Theory! Because the kalimba is organized differently than stan-dard western instruments, it makes chords more easily than scales, i.e. it provides a different way of looking at music. The basic philosophy of the kalimba is to provide all the notes you need for a particular song, but only those notes. However, it can be easily retuned to other scales or keys. You can set the instrument up a certain way and put it in someone’s hands and have them go off and work around a particular scale or mode, letting them improvise or compose in that mode until they really understand the sound of that scale or mode.

Ages 14 and up

To illustrate the kalimba’s use as a music theory laboratory, work on these modal scales written out for the Alto kalimba. Do you have a favorite mode? Try improvising a song in that mode.

How do you play the modal 7th chords? How do you play 9th chords?

On a G major Alto kalimba, how do you play the G mixolydian mode? (Hint: you need to retune)

G major scale A dorian scale B phrygian scale

E Aeolian scaleD mixolydian scaleC lydian scale

KTabS - the Kalimba Tablature Software - is a $30 Windows computer program that allows you to create kalimba tablature quickly and easily, and you can play the music back on your computer to make sure you wrote the right thing and to help you learn how to play it. You can also set up templates for kalimbas of any number of tines in any tuning, you can copy, cut and paste and even transpose phrases or entire pieces. It is a great composition tool. And you can play back several parts simultaneously.

http://ktabs.theirhouse.org

The Kalimba Magic website has over four years of daily tips and five years of informative and imagina-tive newsletters, all archived for your viewing pleasure. See what we have to offer at:

www.kalimbamagic.com

And of course, come and visit me at the Kalimba Magic table # 19 in the exhibit hall - come and chat, tell me what you are up to, and we’ll talk about how you might be able to use the kalimba in your music education work. - Mark Holdaway

Kalimba music writing and arranging. Kalimba Magic is dedicated to providing high quality instruc-tional materials for kalimbas and high end support to kalimba customers. If you need help writing or arranging kalimba parts to go with other music, WE CAN HELP! Contact Mark Holdaway at (520) 488-7641

Other resources

Kalimba Magic is selling a set of several PDFs for a Transposing Wheel - print the wheels and pin them together and spin them around to transpose the major scale, modes, exotic ethnic scales, simple chords, ad-vanced chords, and even chord progressions from one key to another! The information in these transposing wheels is not couched in terms of any particular instru-ment, so it is equally applicable to piano, thumb piano, tuba, or flute.

If you buy the set of PDFs, you can print these out for your whole class! Comes with a 10 page manual and a one page quick start guide.

C C#Db

D

E

D#Eb

FF#

G Gb

B

A

G#Ab

A#Bb Major 7th

M7

7flat 7

5fifth sus

4

minor 3rd3-

3major 3rd

1root

BasicChords