Topic: African tunings (for kalimba)

Can anybody recommend some scala files of African scales to use with the kalimba? I do love the kalimba, it's so simple yet delicate and beautiful.

Update: I just came across this website: https://www.kalimbamagic.com , which has lots of information about kalimbas, including tuning systems.

Last edited by dazric (27-06-2019 14:54)

Re: African tunings (for kalimba)

Nice find dazric! - thank you.

I do love the idea of re-tuning the Kalimba to get a feel for various cultural and historical vibes. Interesting how different countries, localities will have variations and traditions - and how some tunings might be 'westernised' by dropping a few sharps down here and there.

One thing I'm going to love doing is playing around with the + and - cents on some of the charts - as well as checking out some of the following already available scala files!

Quite interesting to find that Hugh Tracey (from the website you link) seems to have contributed mbira tunings to the big scala collection at Huygens Fokker org.

[For anyone without exposure yet to that superb Scala file collection for tunings, head to the above link and look for the link to "scales.zip" - I do not link directly for old-time internetizenship and the fact that you might desire a lot of the info there before unzipping some unfamiliar text file with over 4000 tunings]

If you go to Huygens Fokker scales listings page you can quickly search "Tracey" to see his tunings relate mostly to "mbira" and some other instrument tunings.

So, if loading a scala file from this library of tunings, just cross check, or load any of the "Mbira" tunings, and they'd be from Hugh Tracey, it seems ;0)

Fascinating stuff - some new musical explorations I didn't expect this week

Pianoteq Studio Bundle (Pro plus all instruments)  - Kawai MP11 digital piano - Yamaha HS8 monitors

Re: African tunings (for kalimba)

... a quickie cheater:   just adjusts the Aging Slider to the right ...

Lanny

Re: African tunings (for kalimba)

Yeah I like how that works in the Kalimba Lanny.

Just spent some hours exploring all of those mentioned tunings in the scala library - very different from the chromatic scale - but with such lovable signature quirks.

Really highly recommend trying out those Mbira tunings - something very inspiring about hearing the differences in harmony across them - interesting finding key double note or simple chord shapes. Awesome sauce.

Pianoteq Studio Bundle (Pro plus all instruments)  - Kawai MP11 digital piano - Yamaha HS8 monitors

Re: African tunings (for kalimba)

Yes, will definitely try the mbira tunings, to go on a proper 'musical safari'. There are some Arabic and Asian tunings which should be interesting to try as well.
Kalimba is one of only two instruments in the Pianoteq collection of which I actually own the physical equivalent - the other being an upright piano