Kalimbas: tuning, tine count and getting started
Kalimbas: tuning, tine count and getting started
A kalimba is played with the thumbs and needs no technique to make a pleasant sound, which makes it one of the most approachable instruments there is. The layout takes ten minutes to understand and then makes complete sense.
The layout
Unlike almost every other instrument, a kalimba’s notes do not run left to right. The longest tine — the lowest note — sits in the centre, and the scale alternates outwards: the next note to the right, the one after to the left, and so on.
The reason is ergonomic. Both thumbs share the work and consecutive notes fall under alternating thumbs, which makes scale passages natural rather than awkward.
It means printed kalimba tablature uses its own notation, which is worth getting used to early.
Tine count
Seventeen keys is the current standard and covers just over two octaves, usually in C major. That is enough for a large amount of simple melody and for basic accompaniment underneath it.
Smaller instruments of eight or ten keys are limited to about an octave. Larger instruments of twenty-one keys give more range and are wider under the thumbs.
For a first instrument, seventeen keys in C is the reliable choice: it is what almost all tablature assumes.
Tuning
Kalimbas are tuned by moving the tines through the bridge with a small hammer. Push a tine further in and it shortens and rises in pitch; tap it outward and it lengthens and falls.
Small taps. A tine that is far out of tune usually needs several light taps rather than one firm one, and hitting the tine itself rather than the end can bend it.
Use a chromatic tuner and work from the centre outwards. Tuning drifts slowly and needs attention perhaps every few months rather than every session.
Alternate tunings
Retuning a kalimba to a different scale is entirely possible and is common — minor and pentatonic tunings are popular. It takes patience and it is reversible.
Flat board or hollow body
Flat-board kalimbas mount the tines on a solid plank. The sound is more direct and quieter, with less resonance.
Hollow-body kalimbas have a resonating chamber and a sound hole. They are louder and have more sustain, and covering and uncovering the rear sound holes with the fingers produces a wah effect that is part of the instrument’s character.
For playing alone at home, either works. For anything with more volume, hollow body.
Buzzing
Buzzing is the most common complaint and is almost always one of three things: a tine sitting slightly loose on the bridge, something resting against a tine, or a sticker or ornament vibrating.
A gentle tap to seat the tine usually resolves it. Genuine faults are rare.
Playing technique
Hold the instrument in both hands with the thumbs over the tines and pluck with the edge of the thumbnail rather than the pad. The nail gives a clearer, brighter attack; the pad gives a softer one.
Keep nails reasonably short and even, or some notes will speak differently from others.
Practical checks before ordering
- Seventeen keys in C for a first instrument.
- Check that a tuning hammer is included — it is essential.
- Hollow body for volume, flat board for a quieter, direct sound.
- Buy or use a chromatic tuner.
- Check for a case if it will be carried; tines bend.
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