17-Note Kalimba

17-Note KalimbaChildren’s, Christmas, Spirituals, Americana, Patriotic, Classical, &Exercises

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44 Play Songs

3

4 2

2

3

3

E

1

C

6

A

4

FD

7

B

5

GE

1

C

7

B

6

A F

5

GED

1

C

Your kalimba should be tuned to these notes.

Your kalimba should come to you perfectly tuned to the C

major scale. If it doesn’t sound correct to you, you can tune it

yourself!

Learn about kalimba tuning at:

Check the tuning about once a month, or whenever the

kalimba doesn’t sound right.

There are many other tunings for the 17-Note kalimba.

Some of those tunings will be com- patible with the material

in this book, and some will not. The most important thing is

that your kalimba be tuned with the “1” note on the longest,

central tine.

Your Kalimba’s Tuning

The main way to keep your kalimba sounding good is to make sure it is in tune.

Kalimba Tablature

The instructions for exactly which tines to play,

and exactly when to play them, are precisely

conveyed by kalimba tablature.

The tablature is a stretched-out map of the

kalimba, with one column for each tine on the

kalimba. It uses standard musical note symbols,

placed in these columns, to instruct you on

which tines to play.

Kalimba tablature reads from the bottom up.

Chords, or multiple notes played at the same

time, are represented by two or more notes on

the same horizontal line.

Scales will zig-zag back and forth, right to left.

If you have difficulty with the tablature:

Kalimba tablature maps to the kalimba tines.

Start reading

tablature

at the bottom

and readUP!

Notice These Things in theTablature

*The tablature starts from the bottom - you

can tell from the measure numbers to the right

of the tablature.

*The note each tine is tuned to is indicated at

the bottom.

* The fraction “3/4” in the lower left indicates

“3/4 time” or that there are a total of three beats

in each measure and quarter notes get one beat.

*In this case “The First Noel” has less than

three beats in measure 1. Why? You can do

this at the very start of the music - it is called

a “pickup,” and here it is the first word of the

song.

*If no fraction is present, it is 4/4 time.

*The different sorts of notes - eighth notes,

a dotted quarter note, and then a half note in

measure 3 - have the same lengths as instan-

dard music notation.

Using the Glissando to PlayChords

The glissando is a technique by which you play several tines at once to make a

chord.

I grow my thumb nails to about 1/8 inch to facilitate the glissando playing. Touch

the lowest (that is, longest, and centermost) tine of the chord and slide your thumb

nail over the adjacent shorter tines, stopping after the last one you are to play.

This kalimba is set up to play chords nicely and easily. Any three adjacent tines

will play a wonderful triad

chord - that is, a chord that plays 1 - 3 - 5. Furthermore, a chord produced by a

glissando will ring for several seconds, which will enable you to then play a melody

on the other tines, and produce some gentle harmony. This makes beautiful music,

simply.

Playing chords and melodies together is common in Level 3 songs.

Mary Had A Little Lamb - in ThreeOctavesLevel 1

Low Mid

Mary Had A Little Lamb (cont.)Level 1

Octaves On YourKalimba

While yourkalimba has 17 tines, if you look at the

footer of the tablature, you will see there are only7

different note names: A, B, C, D, E, F, G. There are

multiple tines with the same note names, but they

are different versions of the same notes.

There are three different C tines. They sound the

same in some way - and so have the same note

name. They are, however, in different octaves. Each

octave is 8 tones higher or lower than the the next.

Your 17-Note kalimba has two entire octaves of

the C major scale, plus two more notes that begin a

third octave higher up.

The first column of tablature on page 8, or measures

1-8, show “Mary Had a Little Lamb” in the lowest

octave.

The second column of tab, measures 9-16, has the

exact same melody, but one octave higher. Note

that the arrangement of these notes is like a mirror

image of the lower octave melody. That is, the first

column starts out “right-left-right-left-right-right-

right.” The second column starts out “left-right-left-

right-left-left-left.”

Learning to play both versions will help give you a

balanced approach to the kalimba. You will stimu-

late your brain in a symmetric way and this is excel-

lent discipline for kalimba playing.

The tablature in the third column of this song,

measure 17-24 on this page, show the melody yet

another octave higher. The melody is simplified and

cannot go any higher at measure 20, because we

don’t have any higher tines.

This third octave version is arranged in thesame

“handedness” as the first version.

High

Amazing GraceLevel 1

O When the Saints Go MarchingInLevel 1

Notes Alternate Sides As You Play the ScaleLevel 1

Learn the Different NoteTypesLevel 1

Ba Ba Black SheepLevel 1

Ba Ba Black Sheep, Up an OctaveLevel 1

About Time Signatures

Every song up to this one (except for “Amazing

Grace”) has been in 4/4 time, also called“common

time.” When there is no fraction in the lower left

corner of the tablature, that means you are in 4/4

time.

4/4 time means there are 4 beats in each measure.

A measure is the space between two neighboring

numbered horizontal lines in the tablature.

3/4 time, like in “Amazing Grace,” means thereare 3

beats in each measure.

In both cases, the “4” in the bottom of the fraction

means the quarter note gets onebeat.

6/8 time is a bit busier. The “8” means the eighth

note gets a beat, and that there are 6 beats in each

measure.

However, most of the time you don’t count it in 6.

For example, “Row, Row, Row, Your Boat” I would

count only two beats in each measure(“Row, Row”

= “1, 2”), but each of those beats has three little

pulses, making a total of six pulses ineach measure.

The reason I have written this song in 6/8 is to

make the song shuffle on the “gently down the

stream” part. That is, the notes go “long short long

short.”

This is a common enough song that you will totally

get these notes and this rhythm even if you don’t

quite understand this 6/8 business. In this way, it is

a good introductory song for the 6/8 time signature.

This collection has no other songs in 6/8 - the oth-

ers are all in 4/4 or 3/4 time. However, 6/8 is a very

important time signature in African music, and for

the kalimba for many reasons.

We will have lots of songs in 6/8 and 12/8 in the “33

Intermediate Songs” download.

Row, Row, Row, Your BoatLevel 1

Hush Little BabyLevel 1

ShenandoahLevel 1

Michael Row Your BoatAshoreLevel 1 (left) and Level 3 (right)

Chords for “Michael Row Your BoatAshore”Level 3

Dm

C

G

C

Em

C

F

C

C

Adding Chords

Here is a chance to practice thechords

that you find in the second column of

“Michael Row Your Boat Ashore” on

page 20.

Each of the chords here is a lower-octave

triad (three adjacent tines, strummed

with a glissando), plus a melody note in

the upper octave, on the opposite side of

the kalimba.

Upon close examination, you will see

that the lone upper-octave melodynote

will always be one of the notes that isin

the chord.

Not all music works that way, but a lot

of it does, and the kalimba is set up to

easily do things just like this! Howcool

is that?

Take your time learning how to play

these chords. I find my most common

error is not stopping the glissando in the

right place by playing too many or too

few notes. Apply yourself here, because

learning to slide over exactly three tines

is a skill that is well worth learning.

Once you can play these chords relative-

ly smoothly, go back to page 20 and add

them to the melody.

Or - if you find the chords + melody

technique to be too challenging atthis

time, proceed to the next song, and

come back here later on whenyou’re a

bit more familiar with your kalimba.

Beautiful DreamerLevel 1

Jamaica FarewellLevel 2

Jesu, Joy of Man’sDesiringLevel 1

Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring (cont.)

Kum Ba Ya,LowLevel 1

Kum Ba Ya,HighLevel 1

Mary, Don’t YouWeepLevel 1

Ode to JoyLevel 1

You Are My SunshineLevel 1

This Little Light of MineLevel 2 (because it is syncopated)

She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain When SheComesLevel 1

Daniel in the Lion’sDenLevel 2

Children, Go Where I SendTheeLevel 2

Do LordLevel 2

God BlessAmericaLevel 2

Go Tell It On TheMountainLevel 2

New World SymphonyLevel 2

New World Symphony (cont.)Level 2

This Land Is YourLandLevel 2

This Land Is YourLand

Red RiverValleyLevel 2

Away in aMangerLevel 3

Brahms’LullabyLevel 3

Brahms’ Lullaby, (cont.)

Blowin’ in theWindLevel 3

Blowin’ in the Wind (cont.)

Last Night I Had the StrangestDreamLevel 3

Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream(cont.)

Bring a Torch, Jeannette, IsabellaLevel 3

Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen (Melody)Level 1

Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen (Advanced)Level 3

Old JoeClarkLevel 3

One LoveLevel 3

‘Tis Me O LordLevel 3

My Country ‘Tis of TheeLevel 4

17-Note Kalimba

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