Playing Sansula [PDF]

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Playing the Sansula 2.0

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Playing the

Sansula Version 2.0

Mark Holdaway

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Mark Holdaway

Playing the Sansula 2.0

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Mark Holdaway

I am proud to present Playing the Sansula 2.0, the new and much improved primo guide to sansula playing. The sansula is a marvelous introductory kalimba, for grownups especially, offering maximum pleasure for minimum work and commitment. Why is the Hokema sansula a fantastic kalimba?

- Its tines are beautifully smooth - The instrument has a sweet and clear voice - The tuning is lovely and mystical - The note layout makes it easy to play - The body can make a great special sound effect

The most important thing: this instrument is set up to simply and easily make enchanting music. This is perfect for music to accompany meditation, relaxation, eye gazing with a partner, a therapeutic sound bath, or music Standard A minor Sansula Tuning therapy.

The instruction in this book is for the standard A minor sansula tuning. About 75% of all sansulas I sell are in this tuning. The A minor tuning is remarkable in that everything you play will very easily sound mystical, sweet, and beautiful. The down side is that it makes its own music - there are essentially no songs you know that are playable in this tuning.

5

31

C

A

1 3 A

6F

E

2 B

5

1 If you have a sansula that is not in A minor tuning, E C you have choices: (a) You can retune your sansula A until it matches this tuning. (b) I have written instructional material for several other tunings, and I may have your tuning covered. (c) or, you could choose to look at the sorts of patterns and lessons this ebook gives you, and apply them to your sansula’s tuning. Many lessons will transfer Heavenly A Sansula Tuningin part because patterns will still work on other tunings. The relative lengths of the tines in this diagram are a realistic representation of the sansula. The long E and the F are nearly the same length and make nearly the same note. The two A tines on the left (though one is in the lower and one in the upper row) are the same length, and in fact 5 play the same note. (Please note that lower tines are represented by 3white columns, and upper tines are represented by gray columns.) The central A is longer and plays a note an octave lower. 2

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© 2018 Mark Holdaway

A

C#

7

G#

6

E

5

B

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Mark Holdaway

Different Sorts of Sansulas

The Hokema sansula has been a very popular kalimba. It now exists in at least seven different models and dozens of exotic tunings.





Sansula models shown above, on the top row, from left to right: Standard Sansula

Renaissance Sansula

Deluxe Sansula

Sansula models shown on the bottom row, from left to right: B9 Pocket Sansula

Twin Sansula

B9 Elektra Sansula

Not shown: Renaissance Elektra Sansula, with piezo pickup and microphone.

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Table of Contents Different Sorts of Sansulas 3 Sansula Playing Techniques 5 Kalimba Tablature 9 The Sansula’s Big Trick 10 Going Up? Or Coming Down? 12 Two Notes on Each Side 13 Lower Notes - Upper Notes 14 Chords and Arpeggios 15 Repeating the Cycle - Enter The Trance 16 Thumbing Issues 17 Two Thumbs Play at the Same Time 18 A “Two Against Three” Pattern 19 A “Three Against Four” Pattern 20 Pulloffs 21 Syncopation 22 Pickups 23 Playing Sansula with Guitar or Piano 24 A Minor and A Minor 9 Chords 25 F Major and F Major 7 Chords 26 Some Ear Candy: ||: Am | EM7 :|| 27 C Major Chord 28 Sweet Smooth Jazz ||: CM7 | Am :|| 29 Improvising on ||: FM7 | Am :|| 30 Jamming Isn’t Just Making Things Up 31 Improvising on ||: Am | G | F | G:|| 33 The E and Dm Chords 34 Improvising on ||: FM7 | Dm7 :|| 35 Improvising on ||: FM7 | Em :|| 36 Improvising on ||: Am | FM7 | E | E :|| 37 Improvising on ||: Am | F | Dm | E :|| 38 Improvising on ||: C | G | F | E7 :|| 39 Improvising on ||: C | G | F | G7 :|| 40 A Fancy Song 41 Exotic Tunings: 42 Beautiful E 44 Heavenly A 45 C Major 46 Moroccan E 47 Bluesy E Tuning 48 G Major - The Fireplace 49 C minor pentatonic - Dancing Dragon 50 Your Sansula And Kalimba Journey 51

Mark Holdaway

Playing the Sansula 2.0

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Mark Holdaway

Sansula Playing Techniques Basic Playing

Gently touch the tip of a tine with your thumb flesh, then slide your thumb off, very slightly depressing the tine, and catching the tip of the tine with your thumb nail as you slide off. To play louder, depress more. To play softer, barely press at all. The thumb nail helps create a clear sounding attack, and helps to protect the thumb flesh.

Pulloff E A

C

B

A F

C

E

A

Glissando E A

C

B

A F

C A

E

When sliding off an upper level tine, it is very simple to land on an adjacent lower-level tine, and to pluck that one next. You can slide off the upper tine to the left or to the right. Experiment with different pulloff combinations - there are only eight different ones if you only consider adjacent tines. Which do you like? Which are not as good?

The glissando technique is useful for playing two or three adjacent tines on the same level. As adjacent lower-level (or upper-level) tines have extra space between them on the sansula, the glissando technique is challenging unless you have thumb nails. The three upper-row notes F, A, C make a beautiful chord. Touch the longest one with your thumb nail, slide outward, letting your thumb nail surf over the tines, plucking as you go.

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Sansula Playing Techniques Alternate Right and Left

E



A

C

B

A F

C

E

A

E



A

F

C

Why not cut loose and experiment with different pairs of tines you enjoy of sound of together?

E

A

Several Left or Right in a Row

E



A

It is very simple to play two notes at the same time if one is played by the left thumb and the other is played by the right thumb. The drawback: the peak speed of playing this way is only about half as fast as if you are playing with alternating right - left thumb strokes.

B

A

C

Sometimes you will need to break this stable pattern, but there is a lot of music that fits in with the strict right - left alternating playing. Note that the thumbs in the tablature always point to the starting tines.

Left and Right Together - Doubling

C

The easiest way to play smoothly on a kalimba is to alternate right and left. (Logically, the lowest tine belongs to the right thumb.) This sets up a stable rhythm, much like walking.

B

A F

C A

E

Sometimes the notes you want will all be on the same side, and you will play two, three, or more notes in a row with the same thumb. Again, imagine doing this as fast as you can - you will still be able to slip in notes on the opposite side in between each of these notes, allowing you to play a rhythm that is twice as fast. Clearly, same-side playing will be limited in speed. This is a good time to use the “wah wah” effect; see the next page.

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Sansula Playing Techniques “Wah Wah” Effect

The “wah wah” effect is made by lowering the sansula’s air chamber body onto a flat surface and closing the chamber, then reopening it. This changes the geometry of the resonant air chamber, and changes which notes are amplified by the resonance. Repeating this motion makes the “wah wah,” a sweepable midrange filter. While it sounds electronic, it is a modern incarnation of a thousand-year-old African technology. I use a stack of paper to reduce frame clatter.

Two Thumbs and a Finger

Once your thumb has plucked a tine, it needs to lift itself up to pluck another note. This takes time, and it limits the speed at which you can play. You can play more notes, more quickly by adding your index finger and either plucking tines upward with it (mbira style) or downward (karimba style). This is a standard African playing technique.

Four-Finger Technique There are a number of Brazilian kalimba players who use a four-finger technique. A disadvantage of the four-finger technique is that it requires the sansula to be supported on a table or on your lap, meaning you cannot create the “wah wah” sound modulation. If you have difficulty holding the sansula, the four-finger technique might be exactly right for you.

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Other Notes Thumb Nail Care

I estimate 90% of kalimba players prefer to pluck the tines with their nails. If you can’t grow your thumb nails - or if you break one of them - try the Alaska Pik. Learn about Alaska Piks and nail care here:

kalimbamagic.com/nails

Tuning Your Sansula After playing for a few months, your sansula will be a bit out of tune. You can either touch up the tuning, returning it to the “factory setting,” or you could experiment and change to a new tuning. You will want to get a $20 chromatic electronic tuner, and watch YouTube videos to learn to tune. Learn more at:

kalimbamagic.com/tuning

Listen to Songs on this Download

The CLICK-TO-LISTEN icon.

This ebook is formatted as a download, and not as a print book, and it has live links in each page. You can access sound recordings of each song, lesson, or bit of tablature by clicking on the pictured note-and-sound icon wherever it appears. You can also access all the song links from a single page:

kalimbamagic.com/sansulabook7

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Kalimba Tablature - A Powerful Notation Method About Reading Tablature We use kalimba tablature in this book to indicate to you exactly which tines to play. If you have some experience reading music, kalimba tablature should be a natural extension. Important: tablature reads from bottom to top. For more info on tablature, see:

kalimbamagic.com/tablature kalimbamagic.com/ktabs 

Tablature Footer shows Note Names

E



A

C

B

A F

C

E

A

Kalimba is a very geometrical instrument, and I mostly attend to the patterns I make as I play the tines. I don’t usually give much thought to the names of the notes I am playing, but it can be useful to know, to connect with your prior musical understanding or to communicate with other musicians you are playing with. If you ever need to know what a note is, follow the tine down to the tab footer and read the note name.

Upper-Row Tablature Tines are Shaded The four upper-row tines are represented by shaded columns in the tablature. The five lowerrow tines are represented by white columns in the tablature.



A A

E E

C C

A A C C

F F A A

E E

B B

Generally, you play the left-side tines with the left thumb and right-side tines with the right thumb. The center tine logically belongs to the right thumb but can be played by either. We sometimes suggest you reach a left note with your right thumb and vice versa.

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Mark Holdaway

The Sansula’s Big Trick - exchanging E and F

Repeat

Repeat

Repeating simple but interesting patterns is the basic trick of any kalimba. You can do other things with it, but cyclic, repeating patterns is the easy native thing the kalimba does easily and beautifully.

t Star ! e Her 

E A

C

B

A F

C A

E

The sansula, in its standard A minor tuning, has another trick that informs almost everything you will do in this tuning. This tablature shows a simple four-note pattern. It is not fast, and its right-left repeating pattern is easy to play. The first measure (at the bottom) is repeated; do so as many times as you want. I like 4 repeats for this song. The second measure (at the top) is very similar to the first measure - only the first note has changed, from E to F. After you play measure 1 four times, then play measure 2 four times, and go back and do it all again.

But here is the big trick: it is really

easy to make great-sounding music by first playing a pattern that uses E but NOT F, and then switching to a similar pattern, but using F and NOT E. The Sansula in Standard A minor tuning is sort of a one-trick pony, and now you know that trick.

Most of the music in this book deals with dressing up, slowing down, or trying to run in the opposite direction of this trick. Sit down and play your sansula while meditating on the trick - exchanging E and F. (Green ovals call attention to the E and F notes that switch back and forth from measure 1 to measure 2.)

Playing the Sansula 2.0

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Mark Holdaway

The Sansula’s Big Trick - expanded This is the exact same trick, trading out E and F, but with a more complex pattern.

2

1

3

Repeat

Repeat

The sansula photos show the notes used in the tablature next to them. As a great exercise, try improvising on just these notes.

t Star ! e Her 

E A

C

B

A F

C A

E

2 1

3

While the tablature is a simple and precise recipe for making some particular music, it can obscure the basic shapes of the patterns it contains. When you encounter new tablature, transfer the notes to your sansula and try to understand the patterns. The three right-thumb notes in measure 1 appear to be a straight line in tab, but when you play them, they make a triangle. Observe this pattern in the photo on the right. Seeing patterns is important!

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Mark Holdaway

Going Up? Or Coming Down? This is such a tiny detail, but it is so cool! You can take the same set of notes and make very different music by going up or going down.

Repeat

Repeat

Measure 1 and measure 2 both use the same two lower-row notes on the right, and both use the same two upper-row notes on the left. The right-side notes don’t change, but the left-side notes are played in reverse order in measure 2. Reversing those left notes do not change the “harmony,” but change the direction of the “melody.” Measure 1 has a melody that moves upward and measure 2 has a downward-moving melody.

E



A

C

B

A F

C A

E

1

2

In case you forgot, this icon means: “Click here and listen to what this song sounds like.”

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Mark Holdaway

Two Notes on Each Side May Look Simple, But This is Complex

Repeat

We are still staying within the basic trick of switching between E and F. The green ovals in the tablature call attention to the E, then the F. Those tines also have a green circle on the chord charts to the right.

The right thumb makes a three-note “boom CHUCK CHUCK” pattern. The left thumb is strictly alternating between A and C, or a two-note pattern. Put them together and the composite pattern expands to fill two measures.

Repeat

The first measure makes a “down-updown” pattern, and the second measure makes an “up-down-up” pattern.



The second half shifts the starting note of each measure from E to F, with nothing else changing - our big trick.

E A

C

B

A F

C

E

A

This piece demonstrates that interesting music can be made with only a few notes.

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Lower Notes - Upper Notes

The second phrase uses all four of the upper-row notes, plus the far-right B tine. The B note makes sense, as it is in between the left side’s A and C notes.

Repeat

Repeat

This is still alternating between E and F, but that core principle is a bit disguised. This also follows the rhythmic pattern shown on the previous page.



E A

C

B

A F

C A

E

Check it out! The first phrase uses only notes on the longer tines. While the tablature shows a cool pattern, there are countless patterns you can make with these notes.

Playing the Sansula 2.0

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Mark Holdaway

Chords and Arpeggios

Repeat

Normally, a chord is a bunch of notes all played at the same time. On the sansula it is easy to play notes one or two at a time, but difficult to play all the notes of a chord at the same time. However, as each note on the sansula sustains for several seconds, you can play them one at a time, in slow motion - an arpeggio!

Am9

E



A

C

B

A F

C A

E

The upper notes play an FM7 (F major 7) chord. I have also added the lowerrow B as a passing note... passing from A to C by way of B.

Repeat

FM7

The lower-row notes play an Am9 (A minor 9) chord. While the first measure emphasizes the lower-row notes, don’t miss the two upper-row notes.

In measure 1, we play A on the lower row. In measure 2, we play the same A note on the upper row.

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Mark Holdaway

Repeating the Cycle - Entering The Trance

If you are paying attention, you have noticed that every bit of music in this ebook is repeated. In the recordings, you even hear that I repeat one phrase two or four times, then repeat the next phrase the same, and then I repeat the entire thing (made up of phrase one repeated plus phrase two repeated) a few times. (That’s a “second order” repetition.) If you don’t already know, those double horizontal bar lines in the tablature with two dots above indicate the beginning of a section that you are to repeat, and the place where the dots are below the double horizontal bar lines indicate the end of the repeated section. When you get to the end of the repeated section, jump down to the start of that section and do it again. When you repeat a phrase, there is no pause. It is as if the section were written out two, four, or more times. (A repeat sign means “repeat once.” But in kalimba playing, we repeat sections multiple times. Use your judgement as to how many times you repeat.)

One obvious benefit to repeating the music is that you will have a chance to practice it and get good and solid on it. It also “adds body” to the music: you might get five minutes of music for just one minute’s worth of understanding. Inevitably, after you have looped through a musical cycle ten or twenty times, you will have that particular song or segment under your belt and you may start to get bored. This is where you start to create your own variations, either by intentionally trying a new note, or by accidentally playing a note that sounds great. Just be aware of this process, and especially be aware of when you’ve played something that sounds unexpectedly delightful. Remember those happy accidents if you can.

When you play repetitive cyclical music, you tend to go into a trance-like state. The music can seem to hypnotize you. This connects us directly to the African roots of the sansula. In Africa, one of the uses for musical instruments of this family is to lead people into a trance, especially in ceremonies to commune with the ancestral spirits.

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Thumbing Issues Have you noticed that every bit of music so far has started on the right, then left? And it has been E then A, or A then C. Those are good ways to start, but let’s do something different now and start on the left.

E 

A

C

B

A F

C A

E

Each measure requires strictly alternating thumb strokes. Measures 2, 3, and 4 also continue alternating as we go from one to the other. Going from measure 1 to measure 2 requires two right-thumb strokes in a row. Going from measure 4 back to 1 requires two left-thumb strokes in a row.

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Mark Holdaway

Two Thumbs Play at the Same Time Up until now, everything has been about playing only one note at a time and alternating between left and right thumb strokes. Of course, there are other things you can do. It seems that almost anything you play on your sansula sounds beautiful. But if you try playing two notes at the same time, you may reveal some real clunkers and break that illusion. For example, if you play A against B, or worse, C against B, you’ll discover some of those clunkers. The reason why E and F are right next to each other (on the right side) is to stop you from playing E with one thumb and F with the other - they sound really bad if played at the same time. This tablature presents some two-note chords that actually sound good. It is easy to play two notes simultaneously if one is played by the left thumb and the other is played by the right thumb. But in measure 2, the E-B, the C-A, and the A-E chords will actually be played by the same thumb. Use the glissando technique to slide over the two adjacent tines. E



A

C

B

A F

C A

E

Homework: Try your thumbs at this yourself. What other pairs of notes sound good together?

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A “Two Against Three” Pattern While the right thumb is playing two notes every measure, the left thumb is playing three notes every measure. Each measure starts out with the left and right thumbs playing together. The rhythmic pattern goes: “Together - left - right - left” and sounds like “LONG short-short LONG.”

E 

A

C

B

A F

C A

E

To begin, try this: Just play the leftthumb notes, which will be equally spaced on the bold beat numbers: “one two three four five six.” The right thumb also plays equally-spaced notes, but less often: “one two three four five six.” Then put the two thumbs’ patterns together. This is a great African pattern.

Playing the Sansula 2.0

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Mark Holdaway

A “Three Against Four” Pattern This pattern is similar to the “two against three,” but instead of being in 6/8 time, this one is in 4/4 time - four beats per measure. The rhythm in each measure goes something like: “WE---play-the-san-su-LA--- ” or “LONG short-short-short-short LONG.”



E A

C

B

A F

C A

E

The right thumb is just alternating between E and B in measure 1, always playing on the beat - four notes are played in each four beat measure. The left thumb is trying to play three times in four beats, and it sort of dances around the right thumb’s strong but plodding pattern. I find this to be a very fulfilling pattern.

Playing the Sansula 2.0

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Mark Holdaway

Pulloffs The pulloff technique was probably invented when people in Africa started building mbira instruments with two rows of tines, around 600-1000 years ago. That goofy tilted smile in the tablature indicates the pulloffs. The sansula photos show the notes used in the tablature next to them. As a great exercise, try improvising on just these notes.

L

L

E 

A

C

B

A F

C A

E

The low A in measure 2 is played with the left thumb. This is a great composition technique: a fast pattern (the right thumb pulloff) superimposed on a slower pattern (left thumb alternating between C and A)... and then an even longer scale pattern which is the chord change at measure 2.

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Mark Holdaway

Syncopation Syncopation is about setting up rhythmic expectations, and breaking them, often by playing an expected note half a beat before you might have expected it to be played.

You could call this “five against four” if you wanted to keep going with the lopsided numerical titles. The first two measures have four notes played on the right side, against five notes played on the left.

E 

A

C

B

A F

C A

The curved lines that join two consecutive notes on the same tine are called “ties” - only play the first of each pair of such tied notes. The tie represents a composite note which is as long as all of its constituent notes. Mainly, the tie tells you how long to wait before playing the next note.

E

When you see tied notes, it often indicates notes that start before a downbeat, or before the start of a measure, a sign that the rhythm may be syncopated.

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Pickups Where do you start? At the beginning... unless you have a pickup note, which is played before the beginning of the measure.

L

The pickup note, B, comes before the measure starts, and before the repeat sign. Note that the pickup note B is repeated at the end of measure 5, just before the repeat sign, which leads us back to measure 2.



A

E

C

B

A C

F A

E

Pickups are often weak notes that lead into stronger notes that tend to be accented at the beginning of a measure. Since the last note of measure 4 is played by the right thumb, it is easiest to reach over and play the low A in measure 5 with the left thumb.

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Playing Sansula With Guitar or Piano

Mark Holdaway

Get ready to learn a completely new modality, one that eventually will give you wings. Up until this point, you learned from tablature exactly what to play. From now on we will only use chord charts, those sansula images to the right of the tablature on previous pages, to allow you much more flexibility and creativity. Instead of telling you what to play, I will give you “recipes” for making music. First, I’ll tell you what tines make up different chords and the role that each of a chord’s notes plays within that chord. I then show you a sequence of chords, and supply an audio “chordal” backing track that uses that sequence of chords. Your job is to choose notes and improvise on the sansula over the chordal backing track, and have fun. When you play the sansula solo, (by yourself), the main move you make is going between A minor and F Major. But when you play the sansula with a flexible chording instrument like the guitar, the great thing is that when the guitar offers to take the sansula to many more places than just Am and F, the sansula can still come along!

This section could be the most fun for you!

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Mark Holdaway

The A Minor and A Minor 9 Chords How to use these sansula chord charts: Each chord identifies a particular way the notes of the sansula sound good together, and gives the chord a name that musicians can understand. Even if you don’t fully understand a chord’s name, you can still remember it. Find the notes in the chord on your sansula, and then improvise mainly using those notes. Click on the sound icon and hear the backing chord track. Play along on your sansula. How to use the numbers in the diagram: Think: “Do Re Mi Fa So”. Now, sing the same notes, but named “1 2 3 4 5.” Sing the same notes, but as “1 and 3 and 5.” Now try to just sing “1 3 5.” You have just sung, one note at a time, a major chord. Its notes are referred to as the root (1), the third (3), and the fifth (5).

1

The sansula in A minor standard tuning is in a minor key, which always means the third is a minor. I indicate a minor as “ 3-” in the diagram to the right (think “3 minus” which sounds a lot like “3 minor.”)

3- 1

5

A Minor

Here is another way of looking at it that may help with your understanding: Whichever tine is “1,” that is the root note of the chord, the most important note in the chord. The “5” is a stable and loyal helper pointing to the “1.” Together they make a strong, but “empty” chord. The “3” adds the flavor to the chord, filling it out. A “ 3-” (minor third) makes the chord dark, and a “3” (major third) makes the chord light. And the 7, 7-, 9, 4, 2 are all extra flavor notes, adding subtle overtones to the harmonic meaning.

1

5

33- 1

5

9

A Minor 9

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The F Major and F Major 7 Chords There is something essential about having two notes (one on each side) that you can play. You actually don’t need any more than that at any instant. Simply having a choice - THIS or THAT? for each of your thumbs, gives you a lot of the essential kalimba experience. Of course, you do want to change to other pairs of notes at some point. When you change to other notes, you are instigating a chord change.

The F Major chord presented here has A (the 3rd of F), in the bass (the low note of the chord, that is). People generally like to hear the 1, the root note, in the bass of a chord. You could leave out that low A, and just play the three notes 1, 3, and 5 for the F major chord. But the drawback there is that the right thumb would only have one note, and would not participate in that choice among two possible notes. That is, to get the full sansula experience, each thumb should have at least two note choices to change between.

5

3

1 3

F Major

The F Major 7 chord is pure heaven. For one, it is simple, consisting of all four upper-row tines. And it sounds so sweet, as Major 7 chords are apt to do. And you have two tines for the left thumb to choose from, and two tines for the right thumb to choose from. And you have the “1” in the bass.

In case you forgot, this icon means: “Click here to hear what this song sounds like.”

1

5

3

7 1

F Major 7

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Some Delicious Music Congratulations! You made it through all of that tablature. I am rewarding you for making it to this point by turning you loose on the simplest, most delightful music that the sansula plays:

||: Am | FM7 :|| In the recording, the chords go back and forth between A minor and F Major 7, over and over again. Important Item #1: The A minor chord comprises all of the lower-row notes, minus one, while the F Major 7 similarly contains almost all of the upper notes. Use that as a guide as the chords change. Important Item #2: It sort of doesn’t even matter what you play - anything will sound good! The first chord you hear is Am, the second is FM7, and the third is Am, and so on. Click the icons below to hear two different recordings

1

5

33- 1

3

5

A minor

1

7

F Major 7

This is what I played with the chord progression Just the chord backing track, please jam along!

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The C Chord C is a rather poor chord - it has no 5th. The 5th of C is G: “C D E F G” = “1 2 3 4 5.” But there is no G in the standard tuning! So the C chord here only has the “1” and the “3.” However, we do have two “C” notes and two “E” notes. We have not mentioned this before now (and you have no doubt noticed), but the sansula in standard Am tuning has three octave pairs on adjacent upper and lower tines: The two C notes, indicated here as 1, two E notes, indicated here as 3, and the two A tines immediately to the right of the two C tines (A is not in the C major chord, so the A tines are unmarked here). The C chord is a bit odd, because the left thumb has just the two C tines to play, and the right thumb has just the two E tines to play. I imagine there are some positives that arise from this situation, but I can’t tell you what they are. Sometimes life is like that.

3

1 1 I find the C Major 7 to be much more fulfilling. It does have the possibility of discord, in that the 7 and the high 1 (the B and the C) are only a half step apart. Don’t play them at the same time (unless you feel like breaking something). In fact, you can pivot between the high 1 and the 7 in the same way we did between the E and F notes. The music is easy and sounds good when you do one for a bit, then do the other for a bit, but it’s difficult when you try to play them at the same time. The C Major or C Major 7 are really important chords to master if you want to break out of the A minor kingdom. C is the relative major to A minor, and it likes to work with F Major 7. A recipe for goodness?

3

C Major

1

1

7 1

3

C Major 7

Playing the Sansula 2.0

29

Mark Holdaway

Sweet Smooth Jazz: ||: FM7 | CM7 :|| Ah, beautiful lazy days in the sun! That is what this simple progression sounds like to me. Even though this starts on an F note, it is in the key of C. And this is so major (as opposed to minor)... lght and fluffy major. C is the “relative major” to A minor, the key of the sansula. Notice how these two chords avoid the low A? That note is actually in the F Major 7 chord, but playing the low A would emphasize A, and in this progression we want to emphasize F and mostly C. In other words, this progression is very far away from the default A minor playing of the sansula.

Click the icons below to hear two different recordings

5

3

1

7

F Major 7

1

1

7 1

3

C Major 7

This is what I played with the chord progression Just the chord backing track, please jam along!

Playing the Sansula 2.0

30

Mark Holdaway

||: CM7 | Am :|| As you play the backing chord track, you will notice the chords changing. The first chord is C Major 7, the second is A minor, and they go back and forth that way to the end of the recording. The chord charts below tell you a lot of information about these two chords.

Levels of awareness you may have with the numbers: * You can ignore the numbers, just paying attention to which tines have dots on them - that is, which notes are in the chord, the notes that will be strongest with the backing track. * The next level of awareness is to try to stress the “1” notes in each chord, by playing the “1” note right when the chord changes, by accenting that note, or by playing it more frequently. * Two fundamental motions are: 5 to 1 and 7 to 1. Can you weave those into your improvisations? * Look for “holdover” notes that are in both chords - the C notes are the “1” of CM7, and then the “3-” (or minor third) of A, so C can be played any time with this simple chord progression. * When the backing track is playing A minor, of course you can play other notes that are not in A minor, but the most important notes in your melody will be chosen from the chord.

Click the icons below to hear two different recordings

1 1

C M7

3

7

1

33-

1

5

A minor

This is what I played with the chord progression Just the chord backing track, please jam along!

Playing the Sansula 2.0

31

Mark Holdaway

Jamming Isn’t Just Making Things Up The backing track repeats this chord progression:

||: A minor | C Major |

F Major 7 | C Major 7 :||

or, in better musical shorthand:

||: Am | C |

F M7 | C M7 :||

As the chords change in the backing track, you should change the notes you are playing as well. You don’t have to totally agree with the chords that are playing, but mostly, you should follow the chord charts below.

1

33- 1

3

1 5

A minor

1

1

5

3

7 1

1

1

7 1

3

3

F Major 7

C Major

Can you hear when the chords change in the recording? Can you hear when the cycle repeats and you start over at A minor?

This is what I played with the chord progression Just the chord backing track, please jam along!

C Major 7

Playing the Sansula 2.0

32

Mark Holdaway

OK - What Just Happened?

You were introduced to a chord progression. You knew that every chord played could also be expressed on your sansula. And you were even reminded of what notes were in each chord. While in some sense all of the sansula’s notes are right, you were given the secret decoder ring that told you which notes were the rightest notes at each instant in time. When you improvise, you get to make up whatever you want - whatever you feel like. Think about rhythm, and liken it to an animal moving. Do you want to be like a snake, sliding through the chord progression? Do you want to be a falcon soaring over the chord progression? Do you want to be an antelope bounding? A kangaroo leaping? A whale drifting? A human athlete racing? A friend dancing? Or perhaps, do you want to be yourself, proudly walking through the chord progression, owning each change and return? Rhythm reflects detail in motion. Each of these choices will change the way your thumbs dance on the tines.

You probably want the chord progression and your sansula to sound as if they have the same intention. Whenever you play a note from the current chord, you are giving the message that you are in agreement with that chord’s intention. When you change what you are doing on your sansula, right when the backing track chord changes, that shows that you are aware, tuned in, and that you are in agreement with the chord progression. In a situation where you are improvising with others, and you play a note or several notes that are not in the chord, that sends the signal that you are your own person, making your own decisions. If you do it all the time, it sends the signal that you don’t care about the other musical part, or the musical outcome. It may send the signal that you are insensitive or unaware. The skilled improviser learns when to strengthen the chord progression by answering with notes in the chord, and when to assert their own sovereign musical power as a creative non-conformist by playing notes outside of the chord - but usually for a reason.

Playing the Sansula 2.0

33

Mark Holdaway

Improvising with the Progression ||: Am | G | F | G :|| Another three-chord progression. These chords go down, from A to G to F... then back up again to G, and back to A. The only trouble is, your sansula does not have the note G. The notes of the G major chord are: G B D, and, of those, the standard A minor tuning has only the B. This is actually a typical situation for the sansula. So, we do what we can, and we improvise - we emphasize the one note in that chord - B - and flutter about other nearby notes, waiting for the next chord to come, because we will be strong again on the F or Am. This is an important lesson to become very conversant with. To go into further detail: On the sansula, the G chord is missing most of its notes. (I gave it the name “G huh?” for this reason.) On the chord chart, the only member of the G chord is B, the third. But I also include A and C, the 2nd and 4th of the scale... these are not in the G chord and are considered “passing notes” around the 3rd, and can be briefly useful if not played on a strong beat. But these two notes are part of both the A minor as well as the F Major 7 chords. (On the F Major 7 chart, it looks like that A is missing, but it was left off only to simplify the chart.) The A and the C are part of just about everything you play on this instrument. They can be a “structural part” of the music you play on it. Their meaning will be changeable, sometimes interacting very coherently, sometimes less, as the chords change. This makes a significant point: Each of these two notes is beautiful. Play them with confidence. With some chords, they will work brilliantly, and with others, they’ll work less well. But keep playing them, because when it all works again, it will sound so much better after having passed through that moment of weakness, and it seems to give the music depth and substance.

Just the chord track

This is what I played

1

33- 1

2

4

3

1

5

3

7 1

5

A minor

G - huh?

Can you hear when the chords change in the recording? Can you hear when the cycle repeats and you start over?

F Major 7

2

4

G - huh?

3

Playing the Sansula 2.0

34

Mark Holdaway

The E and Dm Chords The sansula is heavily biased toward the A minor. Every note on the instrument, except for the F, is in the A minor 9 chord. The advantage this gives us is that no matter what you play, it will be firmly grounded in A minor, even if you know not what you are doing. The disadvantage is that many notes that are required to play some of the logical chords you would like to play with A minor are missing from the instrument.

The E chord is in better shape than the G chord. At least we have the root note in E. In fact there are two E notes, on the right side of your sansula. It also has B, the 5th of the E chord.

1

But that’s where it stops: there is no 3rd and no 7th. And this is the downside - you cannot play music that must distinguish between an E major and an E minor.

1

The advantage: you can simply play along with an E chord, or an E minor chord, or an E7 chord, and you play the same 1 and 5 bits with any of those chords.

major E - neither nor minor

In other words, what seemed to be a disadvantage can be used as a strength. The sansula’s D minor 7 chord has the minor 3rd, the 5th and the minor 7th... but as there is no D on the sansula, the root note is missing. If you had to play a D minor chord on your sansula alone, you’d be in trouble. But if you’re playing along with a chording instrument, it will supply the D note, and now you know what notes you have that can play along with a D minor or D minor 7 chord. Hint: when you see Dm or D minor 7, just play the notes from the F chord.

5

75

5

3

5

D minor 7

Playing the Sansula 2.0

35

Mark Holdaway

Improvising on ||: FM7 | Dm7 :|| F is the relative major to D minor, and D is the relative minor to F major. These chords have the same relationship as CM7 and A minor do. This is a huge hint to you - why not try combining the FM7 - Dm progression with the CM7 - Am progression? You could do the first progression for two or four repeats, followed by the same number of repeats of the second progression. But first, try grooving on the F Major 7 - D minor 7 progression. When two chords share a “relative major and minor” relationship, that means that most of the notes of the two chords will be shared. The three upper tines, F A C are the 1 3 5 in the F Major 7 chart below, and also the 3 5 7 in the D minor 7 chart. One strategy for improvising with such relative major and minor chords is to find a little melody that works well with one chord... and repeat it exactly when the chord changes. That melody should work, unchanged, or with slight changes, with both FM7 and Dm7.

Click the icons below to hear two different recordings

5

3

1

7-

7

5

5

3

5

F Major 7

D minor 7

This is what I played with the chord progression Just the chord backing track, please jam along!

Playing the Sansula 2.0

36

Mark Holdaway

Improvising on ||: FM7 | E minor :|| On the previous page, we saw how almost every note is shared between two chords such as FM7 and Dm7, which share the relative major / minor relationship. That is why they sound so good together. The chords here, FM7 and Em, share almost no notes. Well, the 7th of F is E, which is the root of the E chord... which means only one note is shared between these two chords. Let me say this a different way: E, the 7th of FM7, is the least stable note of that chord... while E is the root or “1” of the E chord, which is the most stable note. In other words, the E notes could be like an anchor - you can create melodies around the E note, and as the underlying chords change from FM7 to E, your E note will switch from somewhat unstable (during FM7) and very stable (during E). This is a pretty jazzy change, just like FM7 - CM7. If your brain is working like mine, you will look into blending the two progressions.

Click the icons below to hear two different recordings

5 3

1

1

7

1

F M7

1

E

This is what I played with the chord progression Just the chord backing track, please jam along!

5

Playing the Sansula 2.0

37

Mark Holdaway

Another Classic Progression ||: Am | FM7 | E

| E :||

This is a great Latin progression that will sound familiar to you. In addition to our usual Am and FM7, it has the E chord. Harmonically, E is a very strong chord in the key of A minor. But the E chord is rather weak on the sansula, and it lasts twice as long as the other two chords in this particular music. What you lack in terms of notes, you must make up with emotional intensity. Play the notes louder? Play them with a syncopated rhythm? Play other notes “around” the E chord, such as the 4 and 6?

Rhythm Rhythm is such an important topic, and I have mostly ignored it here. My apologies. I am hoping you explore the rhythms that make you happy. This backing track here has nice rhythm, so you could actually ignore rhythm and play it straight, letting the backing track drive the rhythm. If one part is very rhythmic, it can be good to have another part less so for contrast. On the other hand, you could invent a rhythmic pattern that used... oh, two notes on each thumb? Then, you make the same rhythmic pattern on the next chord, and the next. A consolidated rhythmic pattern creates unity, making the whole piece of music feel as if it was cut from one cloth.

Just the chord backing track, please jam along!

This is what I played with the chord progression

1

5

33- 1

3

1

7

41

1

6-

1

5

A minor

F Major 7

Can you hear when the chords change in the recording? Can you hear when the cycle repeats and you start over?

E

5

Playing the Sansula 2.0

38

Mark Holdaway

Improvising on ||: Am | F | Dm

| E :||

This is almost the same as the previous chord progression. The previous progression only had three chords, so it sat on the E for twice as long. This change brings more balance into the progression. It still starts on Am and F, but delays the conclusion to E by slipping in the Dm.

Listen to the bass notes Not always, but often, the bass will really spell out the chord progression. The bass tends to play the root note (that is, the “1”) of each chord at the instant that the chord changes. If you listen to the bass line, it will usually give you some very clear clues about the chords. Furthermore, bass lines will often lead into the changes. A walking bass line might be planned to land right on the root note of a new chord exactly when the music changes to that chord. The bass player is your friend when it comes to understanding the music. By the way, drummers also herald changes in the chord progression as well as larger structural changes.

This is what I played with the chord progression

Just the chord backing track, please jam along!

1

1

5

33- 1

3

1

5

A minor

F

Can you hear when the chords change in the recording? Can you hear when the cycle repeats and you start over?

51

5

3-

14

4

1

5

D Minor

E

5

Playing the Sansula 2.0

39

Mark Holdaway

Improvising on ||: Am | G | F | E7 :|| Hit the Road, Jack! or One More Cup of Coffee Before I Go This is a classic progression, with a simple descending bass line. One thing that is different about this progression here is that I have sped it up. Most of the other progressions held a chord for an entire four-beat measure, giving you time to figure it out, while this one spends only two beats on each chord. When chords are flying very fast, there is a bit more forgiveness for not following the chords. The two most important chords are the first one - A minor - and the last one - E. Do your best to play the notes in those chords as they come around, and let yourself just shimmer on whatever notes come your way on the G and F. In other words, if you start strong and end strong, you can get away with a lot about what you do in between. And what do you do in between? Try to tell a story. Any little story. Make a reason in your mind why you go from this note, to the next, to the next. Improvisation is about telling your story, in your own way. So, experiment with telling different kinds of stories. These stories will help you remember the topography of your improvisations, and may well help you return to a similar space the next time you are here.

This is what I played with the chord progression

1

33- 1

2

4

3

Just the chord backing track, please jam along!

1

5

3

7 1

5

A minor

G - huh?

Can you hear when the chords change in the recording? Can you hear when the cycle repeats and you start over?

F Major 7

1 4

1

4

1

E

5

Playing the Sansula 2.0

40

Mark Holdaway

Improvising on ||: C | G | F | G7 :|| This chord progression is commonly known as a I - IV - V (“one - four - five”). For people who need to be exactly correct, it is I - V - IV - V. In many ways, this is the most “normal” music that your sansula can play. Songs like this: “Wimmoweh” and “Good Love.”

Check Out the G7 Chord At the End Again, don’t get too excited about the G7 chord, as it is lacking its root note, G - it’s a G-less G chord. However, we do have the F note, which is the 7th of G, which will effectively drive the harmony back to C, which is where the chord progression goes on “repeat.” Now, the 2 and 4 are actually pretty interesting with the 3 and 7- notes. The 4 will make a suspension (a note outside of the chord, in tension with the chord, that is resolved when you move to a nearby note in the chord) and I really like the 7- note in interval with both the 3 and the 4 notes. Also, the 2 can be thought of as a 9th, working to make rich alternate harmonies along with the 7-.

This is what I played with the chord progression

3

1

2

4

Just the chord backing track, please jam along!

3

1

5

3

7 1

3

1

C

G - huh?

Can you hear when the chords change in the recording? Can you hear when the cycle repeats and you start over?

F Major 7

2

4

7-

G7

3

Playing the Sansula 2.0

41

Mark Holdaway

A Fancy Song This song is much longer than any of the three- and four-chord progressions we have worked on up to this point. As a longer piece, the individual chord graphics have been left out. At first, just try to swim or fly by intuition. You will have some success, but you will have more success when you internalize the sound of these changes, and you know which notes will reinforce the chord progression. Understanding is not everything. Feeling counts. Your body seemingly running itself - in a moment when your mind might not know what to do - counts. Intuition counts. It is all part of being human. But understanding how the music is built, and understanding how to flow with that, can only help further you in your journey into the music.

||: Am | Am | Dm | Dm | F | Em | Dm | Dm | F | Em | Dm | Dm | F | E m | Dm | G ||: Am | Am | Dm | G | F | Em | Dm | Dm | F | Em | Dm | Dm | F | E m | Dm | G ||: Am | Am | Dm | G | Am |

:|| (4 x ) | | | :|| (4 x ) | | | :|| (5x )

This is what I played with the chord progression

Just the chord backing track, please jam along!

Playing the Sansula 2.0

42

Mark Holdaway

Exotic Tunings As we have discussed before, the good thing about the standard A minor sansula tuning is that anything you play with it sounds lovely and so “A-minory.” And the bad thing about the standard A minor sansula tuning is that it is really hard to break out of the A minor harmony. The sansula is such a beautiful instrument. But after I’d been playing the sansula for about two solid months back in 2007, I realized I needed to find another tuning, one with more harmonic and melodic possibilities. I discovered several tunings that I thought worked exceedingly well.

Sansula Pitch Helix

The Sansula Helix The tunings I came up with for the sansula tend to follow the basic pathway defined by the standard tuning, from 1 to 9 in the diagram here. (In the standard tuning, tines 5 and 6 are tuned to the same note.) A typical kalimba tuning will zigzag left to right the whole way up the scale. The sansula has two complications - two levels of tines, and a stretch of notes 3, 4, 5, 6, which do not zigzag but are all in a line. But they do weave among lower-row and upper-row tines. In other words, the sansula’s tuning is very idiosyncratic. Rather than change this and make it simpler, my alternative tunings adhere to this idiosyncratic note system. Why do I do this?

9

8

7

6

5

4

2

3

1

Numbers represent the sequence from low to high.

First, it is a hugely simplifying assumption for the one who is coming up with tunings! Instead of a million tunings to consider, maybe there are a thousand. It gives me a concept of the instrument. Following this concept also gives the player an important tool: Even if you have never played this particular tuning, if the notes follow the basic path, you will be able to find your way easily. Furthermore, thumb patterns that you developed on one tuning will be likely to work in some way with the new tuning, but will sound harmonically different. In other words, all your old moves are likely to still work, but will sound different - so you get new-sounding music at minimal cost.

Playing the Sansula 2.0

43

Mark Holdaway

The Art of Tuning If you are a serious sansula or kalimba player, you will already be skilled at maintaining your instrument’s tuning. If not, you should be able to learn to tune your kalimbas yourself unless your hands are weak or painful. The skills required to keep your sansula in tune are the same as the skills required to change over to a new tuning. The difference is that when maintaining the tuning, you are changing tines by a fraction of a half step, while changing the tuning may require retuning a tine several half steps. You will want to get a chromatic electronic tuner (available for about $20 from your local guitar shop or online), and you need to know the notes your sansula should be tuned to. And you may have the sansula tuning tool (the silver-colored bar next to the sansula in the photo). A Pilot G-2 ball point pen, retracted, will also work to push the tines, but using the same pen several times will fatigue the plastic. Careful! Kalimba tines are harder and sharper than your hands, and you don’t want to push your fingers into an oncoming tine edge. You may want to get a T15 hexagonal driver bit (contained in a set at your hardware store) to loosen and retighten the bolts to make it easier to adjust the tuning. I recommend 1/2 turn or less. Just touching up on the tuning doesn’t require loosening the bolts, but changing to a different tuning is much easier if you turn the bolts with the T15 driver bit. Learn more about tuning your sansula:

kalimbamagic.com/tuning

Playing the Sansula 2.0

44

Mark Holdaway

Beautiful E Tuning

Standard A minor Sansula Tuning

Beautiful E Sansula Tuning

I find the Beautiful E tuning to be as enchanting as the standard (A minor) tuning, but it is a major tuning and so it feels expansive and glorious5 32 rather than mystical and mysterious. 1 1 E

C

6B A the A This sansula tuning can create I, IV, and V 5 3 chords, as well as their relative minors 1vi, Fii, and C iii. These chords are commonly used in pop, Efolk, A rock, African and classical music.

C#

A

4 G# D

6

1 F# A

5 E

2 B

5 E

4 D#

3

A

G#

6 C#

In other words, the Beautiful E tuned sansula is a Heavenly A Sansula Tuning huge step forward in musical possibilities.

Listen to3 a song in Beautiful E Tuning 1 7

2 5 F#

E

5 B

1 E

B

Moroccan E Sansula Tuning

?

74

D

A

Learn more about the 1 5 Beautiful E Download 3 7- G#

Watch on YouTube: Beautiful E Tuning

C Major Sansula Tuning

1

7

D

2-

5 F

E

1

B

E

B

G Major Sansula Tuning

We have a good instructional download to help you play the sansula in Beautiful E. 3

2 6 The download is a 48-page, 33-song PDF that 1 is intended as5 an introduction to the 3 E songs are ones land of the Beautiful6E Sansula. you already know,Elike 2 D 1 D 5 The first 10 C 4 understand Amazing Grace, and they will help you how Ato read the tablature. The B 6 G A G 3 5 2 next two dozen pieces are compositions, exercises, and explorations thatE are tailor 3 F 1 1 made for the Beautiful E Sansula, which more musically E you will find to be much D D B expressive and much more upbeat C than the standard A minor tuning. G

C Minor Pentatonic Sansula Tuning

Bluesy E Sansula Tuning

Playing the Sansula 2.0

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45

Heavenly A Tuning

1

C

A

3 A C

61 F

4 D# E Mark Holdaway B A 5 E

A

Heavenly A Sansula Tuning

The Heavenly A tuning, invented by Rick Tarquinio, may be the most functional major sansula tuning. Heavenly A tuning can play a lot of songs, and sounds pretty lovely doing it.

5

3 1

The I, IV, and V chords and their relative minors can all be played; this opens the sansula to playing pop, folk, rock, and classical music.

7

C#

A

Moro

4 G# D

6 1 F#

E

2 B

5

74 A

E

A

C Major Sansula Tuning

Listen to a song in Heavenly A Tuning

?

2 6 D A

Watch on YouTube: Heavenly A Tuning

D

GM

Learn more about the 3 Heavenly A Download 1 E

5

2 G D

4 1 F

3

C

5 2 D A

E

C

C Minor Pentatonic Sansula Tuning

Blue

There is an instructional download for the sansula in Heavenly A tuning. This 39-page, 22-song PDF draws from both western songs4such as “This Little 5 Light of Mine” and “She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain When She Comes, ” and Gfrom 31 F 7traditional African songs that are usually played on the 9-note Student karimba. 5 Eb C

Bb

4 G Of course, every kalimba on earth owes a debt of gratitude to the Ancestors, the 1 F Eb ones who came before us and figured out how to build and play kalimbas. Every C 3-

kalimba’s lineage can be traced back to Africa, the motherland of kalimbas.

75 B

D

Playing the Sansula 2.0

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46

C Major Tuning

7

C#

A

4 G# D

6 1 F#

4 E D Mark B Holdaway A 5 E

A

C Major Sansula Tuning

In general, I find the C Major sansula tuning to be uplifting with a dose of triumph. Usually a very beautiful feeling!

3

2

What is good about this C Major tuning?

6 D A

* Root note (C) in the bass. * The roots of the I, IV, and V chords (C, F, and G) are conveniently located in the middle. * Octave pairs D and E are located symmetrically on the instrument. * Some nice, simple melodies like to go up to the 3rd of the scale (E), and it’s here - the highest note.

Listen to a song in C Major Tuning

E

5 2 G D

4 1 F

3

GM

1 C

5 2 D A

E

C

Blue

C Minor Pentatonic Sansula Tuning

?

Learn more about the 5 4 C Major Download G 37-

1 F C

Watch on YouTube: C Major Tuning

3Eb

5

Bb 1

G

4

Eb

F

C

There is an instructional download for the sansula in C Major tuning. It is 48 pages, with 32 songs. I am very fond of this tuning - it has good straightforward energy and a lovely emotion behind it.

75 B

D

Playing the Sansula 2.0

1

1

C

A

6-

3 A

5

E 47

1 F Moroccan E C A

B

E Tuning

Heavenly A Sansula Tuning

4 D#

3

A

G#

C#

7

E

2

C#thought of as a The Moroccan E tuning can be 6 variant of the Beautiful E tuning, but with the5 flat B A G# 4 7th (ie, D natural), and more importantly, 1 F#a flat E D 2nd (F natural).

4

A

2 G D

4 1 F C

3

B

3 7- G# D

25 F

E

5 B

1 E

B

G Major Sansula Tuning

Listen 3 to a song in 5 1 Moroccan E Tuning E

5

E

1

D

A

C Major Sansula Tuning

6 D

1

7-

A

2

5 F#

Moroccan E Sansula Tuning

This tuning is really exotic. I love to play it and imagine I am in an African desert. Moroccan E has a whole new flavor of mystery. 5 3 1

6

2

5 E Mark Holdaway B

C

2 D A

E

6 1 3

6

G 1

B

Watch on YouTube: Moroccan E Tuning

E

5

E 3 B

D

G

Bluesy E Sansula Tuning

C Minor Pentatonic Sansula Tuning

The tuning has a major 3 (G#) but a minor 2 (F), giving it the classic Middle Eastern feeling - an ambiguity between major and minor. Tune up this way and pretend you 1 5 74 are writing the score for Lawrence of Arabia. Combined with the sansula’s wah-wah 3 5 4 G 3E 1 trip! 7tricks, it’s a wonderful F D C

3Eb

5

Bb 1 C

G

4 F

Eb

B

7D

A

2

5 F# B

1 E

G#

Playing the Sansula 2.0

6 D A

5 2 G D

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1 F Bluesy E C

2 D A

C

E Tuning

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G 1

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C Minor Pentatonic Sansula Tuning

E

5

E Mark B Holdaway

D

G

Bluesy E Sansula Tuning

Each tuning will feel and sound different, and while this one is not quite as mystical as the standard A minor Sansula tuning, I feel it is quite a bit more capable, and I love the Mixolydian sound I 4get from it (without 5 explaining, that high D, or 7-, which is a flat 7th or G 31 7minor 7th, when played in contextFwith the low or high 5 Eb E, is the essence of the Mixolydian I hope you C mode).Bb 4 3like this tuning. G 1 F Eb C

Watch on YouTube: Bluesy E Tuning

1

1

75 B

4

D 7D

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A

2 5 F#

E 1

3 G#

E

B

Get a Free 20 page Bluesy E Download

Playing the Sansula 2.0

1

7

C#

A

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4 G#

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E 49 B

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D

A

7- G#

F# G Major1Tuning - The Fireplace E

D

D

A

C Major Sansula Tuning This G Major tuning is simple and charming and yet comforting. An innocent and natural joy. To me, this tuning feels like looking back on a good day, with family and 3 2 friends, from the vantage of the fireplace, warm and com1 fortable on a cool autumn evening. E 6 D 5 C 4 I would love to write music forAthe G Major Sansula tuning. 3 2 G F 1 E D C

1 F C

3Eb

5

Bb 1 C

G

G 3Eb

4 Listen

E

B

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5 2 D A

1 3

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G 1

B

E

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E 3 B

D

G

Bluesy E Sansula Tuning

5 7-

5 F

1

E Mark B Holdaway

G Major Sansula Tuning

C Minor Pentatonic Sansula Tuning

4

2-

1

75 B

D

to a song in7F G Major Tuning D

4 A

2 5 F# B

E 1 E

3 G#

Playing the Sansula 2.0

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C Minor Pentatonic Tuning -

6 D A

5

4

2 G

3 F 1 DancingDDragon E C

C Holdaway Mark

2 D A

C Minor Pentatonic Sansula Tuning This tuning plays music that is rich, strong, and solidly melancholy... unless you work to tilt the instrument into an alternate mode. The recording starts in an alternate mode - F - which is neither major nor minor, and has more of an inquisitive feel. Next, it goes solidly into C minor for the heart of the song, before turning upward to the relative major Eb for the fadeout.

5

4 1 F C

Blue

73-

5

Bb

Eb

Listen to a song in C Minor Pentatonic Tuning

1 C

G

4 F

G 3Eb

75 B

D

Playing the Sansula 2.0

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Mark Holdaway

Your Sansula and Kalimba Journey What do you want to do? The journey is yours. You have the tools you need to create your own music on the sansula. I hope you are enjoying the creative process. You also have a set of seven alternative tunings. If you feel the standard Am tuning is too confining, you will be able to pick a new direction from among the alternatives. If you write your own music, you might want to create a sansula tuning that works most perfectly with your song. I think there are hundreds to thousands of cool and interesting tunings waiting to be discovered, just for this 9-note sansula. As your kalimba skills grow, you will probably outgrow the 9-note sansula format, even if you do explore alternative tunings. A modest step up in complexity is the Hokema B11 kalimba, in standard G major tuning, or one of several B11 exotic tunings. A more African experience can be had with the African-tuned karimba. As the karimba can be retuned to A minor and still express African musical sensibilities, it can thus be tuned to complement the sansula’s A minor tuning. Best to you, and welcome, as you begin your own kalimba journey. May you find much enjoyment along the way!

Playing the Sansula 2.0

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Mark Holdaway

About Kalimba Magic Kalimba Magic is a business dedicated to the proposition that the kalimba is a real instrument capable of amazing music. Kalimba Magic has the broadest collection of kalimbas for sale in the world. The videos on the Kalimba Magic YouTube channel have had several million views. We specialize in creating instructional guides and resources to help you get the most out of your kalimba. Our website has the best info on playing your kalimba and keeping it sounding good. To help you get the most out of your kalimba, we have created 26 hardcopy kalimba books and 41 ebooks, most based on our ingenious and flexible kalimba tablature, which shows you exactly which tines to play to accomplish each song. Kalimba Magic has been selling high quality kalimbas, kalimba books, and kalimba music online, and repairing, retuning, and reinvigorating your tired old kalimbas, since 2005.

About Mark Holdaway Mark has been playing kalimba since 1986 when he met a stranger who played the Hugh Tracey Alto kalimba really well. Mark chased after the memory of that man’s most excellent playing for the next 10 years, but since then has been following his own path. Mark is a talented multi-instrumentalist and accompanist, playing guitar, bass, mandolins, recorder, marimba, percussion, kalimbas, karimbas, sansulas, and mbiras. Mark enjoys exploring new kalimba tunings, learning and understanding traditional African music, writing music and books, improvising, teaching, performing... and dancing.

Mark Holdaway Kalimba Wizard

Mark has lived in Tucson since 1995, where he is an active member of the folk and world music scene. Since finishing his career as a radio astronomer in 2006, Mark has devoted himself full time to his business, Kalimba Magic. For fun, Mark loves to hike in the deserts, canyons and mountains of southern Arizona and New Mexico. And he always takes a few kalimbas with him. Mark’s mission is to spread the history, magic, pride, and joy of the kalimba around the world.

Playing the Sansula 2.0

Playing the Sansula 2.0

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Mark Holdaway