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Kalimba


jazzman21

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Does anybody play one of these? I really like the way they sound, it's like a handheld xylophone/vibraphone.

In my days of collecting African percussion,

I used to play 3 different sized thumb pianos:

bass, tenor and alto. If you decide to buy one,

make sure that you have some finger holes

on the bottom to aid in it's resonance and,

also, to add the occasional tremolo effect.

I used to think that they all had these holes,

but the cheap gift store kinds often don't and

you could very well consider yourself ripped-off.

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I have one of the "commercial" models, though self-made from a set of parts, and a traditional one from Zimbabwe, which is very hard on the fingers due to the heavy steel the tongues are made of. I once saw a Shona musician in concert - amazing!

Remember this is called many different names - sanza, mbira, etc. - kalimba is rarely used in traditional African cultures.

A web search for mbira will turn up much valuable information.

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