This amplifies and projects the sound acoustically. The online learning community with inspiring lessons and guides to improve your skills in playing Kalimba music. When you pluck one of the tongues of the kalimba, it vibrates and this vibration is passed through the body of the kalimba at the point where the tongue is fitted. Frequently Asked Questions About the Kalimba How does the kalimba work? As with any instrument, it's best to start at a slow tempo and only speed up when you can play a melody all the way through without making any mistakes. A kalimba book might be handy, as well as a few good online tutorials to help you get to grips with the instrument, but since the kalimba is so easy to pick up, you'll be able to play melodies and songs fairly quickly. Kung fu panda - Oogway ascends (kalimba tab) Kung fu panda is an animated family comedy movie produced by Dreamworks Animation for release in 2008. What Do You Need to Play Kalimba Music?īesides your kalimba, you don't actually need that much. Since you can plug an electric kalimba into an amplifier, they're much easier to perform or record with and you can even add some cool effects. Electric KalimbasĮlectric kalimbas are amplified via one or more pickups instead of a hollow body, like a guitar. There are some kalimbas you can tune using a special tuning hammer to gently bend the tongues up or down to correct the pitch, or by tapping the tongues forward or back to change the note. You can just pick up a kalimba and start getting familiar with the way it works, watch a few tutorials to find out what it can do, and in very little time you'll be able play little melodies or entire songs. Learning to play the kalimba is actually fairly easy. The kalimba is played by plucking the metal tongues with both thumbs and has a beautifully warm sound. Traditionally, the kalimba has a solid wooden body rather than a hollow body. In the fifties, the kalimba was designed by the musicologist Hugh Tracey as a more simplified version of the mbira and was later popularised by one of the lead singers of the band Earth, Wind & Fire. Download the tabs to your KalimbaGo (if you have one) to enjoy playing new music. The mbira looks almost identical to the kalimba, but has more tongues fitted on the left side of the body. Listen to the converted music in our Online Tabs Player. The kalimba is originally based on the age-old African instrument, the mbira, a percussion instrument played by the Shona tribe in Zimbabwe. You can get kalimbas in a variety of different shapes and sizes fitted with varying numbers of tongues and you can even get electric as well as acoustic kalimbas. The kalimbra is a 'lamellophonic', or 'liguaphonic' instrument since it's played by plucking a set of tuned 'lamella' or tongues, which can be made from wood or metal, but the tongues of a kalimba are always metal. Also known as the thumb-piano, the kalimba is a melodic percussion instrument based on an age-old African instrument, the 'mbira'.

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