Kalimba Duets and Trios

for
Alto Kalimba, Treble Kalimba, Cloud 9 Marimbula,
Sansula, Treblito, Pentatonic Kalimba,
Karimba, and 8-Note Kalimba

Mark Holdaway
www.KalimbaMagic.com

This book is designed to help the growing kalimba community open to the possibilities of kalimba music
for groups. There has been very little kalimba music written for groups, largely because it can sound so
exciting and fun when kalimba groups improvise or make up their own parts. This collection of kalimba
duets is unique, and it seeks to achieve significant depth in pieces such as Los Lobos’ Saint Behind the
Glass and The Dance of Time, while maintaining significant breadth by including material for a wide
range of kalimbas. There is also a wide range of difficulty in this book: the pieces in the beginning of this
book are easy enough that many beginners can learn to play them in a single sitting, but even expert
players will be challenged by the material at the end of the book.

Several people have contributed to this book effort: Sharon Eaton has written, co-written, and arranged
several pieces in this book, and she has also been instrumental in perfecting the interface with KTabS and
in proofreading. Deb Driskill co-wrote two pieces in this book and did the photography. And two of my
students, Glen Davis and Della Estrada, each co-wrote a duet.

The KTabS Software will show you how these songs go

Unlike the other Kalimba Magic books, this one does not come with a CD. We expect to produce an
artistic CD using many of these duets later this year. But you don’t have to wait for the CD to hear what
these tunes sound like: you can download the KTabS files for all of these tunes for free!
Go to http://ktabs.theirhouse.org, register, go to the MyKTabS page, and download the Duets KPack.
To play these files, you must also get the trial version of KTabS, or purchase KTabS or the KTabS reader.
The KTabS programs allow you to “play” these songs on your Windows computer: on the screen you will
see the tines to be played are highlighted as the sound they make comes out the speakers. To play both
parts of a duet together in KTabS, Open both duet files, select Tile Windows to display them side by side,
and select Tie All Views Together to make all windows play together, and then click on the play button.
This will be a valuable tool for helping you understand how each piece is to be played.

copyright 2007 Mark Holdaway

 Table of Contents

Jewelry Box Alto-Treble 5

Waters Alto-Treble 6
Sansula Song Sansula-Cloud9 8
Hourglass Sansula-Alto 9
Silly Duet Treble-Alto 10
Lazy Summer Alto-Cloud9-Treble 11
Lilting Lullaby Treble-Alto 12
Dark and Light Alto-Treble 16
Dona Nobis Pachem Four Altos 18
Buddy Holly Alto-Alto 20
Out of the Whirlwind Sansula-Treblito 21
SnowDay Treble-Alto 24
RestStop Treble-Alto-Cloud9 28
Peanut Vendor Cloud9-Alto-Treble 31
Cloud Walk Alto-Treble-Cloud9 34
Go Down Into Your Cellar Alto-Treble 37
African Karimba-Pentatonic 38
GreyCat Sansula-Treblito 40
Stardust Sansula-Treblito 41
Classical African Waltz Alto-Alto 42
Cool Song for the 8-Note 8-Note-Cloud9 44
Moon Jump Alto-Treble-Alto 46
Karimba City Three Karimbas 47
Glen’s Song Sansula-Cloud9 48
Gillian Welch DmTreble-Cloud9 50
Carol of the Bells Alto-Treble 54
Dance of Time Treble-Alto-Alto 56
Ding Dong Duet Treble-Alto 62
Saint Behind the Glass Treble-Cloud9 64
White Coral Bells Treble-Treble-Alto 67
Bach to Bach Alto-Treble 68
Goodnight Irene Treble-Alto 71
 3
Kalimba Tablature
The duets and trios in this book are written in Kalimba Tablature. Regular music staff has five lines per
stanza and runs left to right across the page. Music written on a staff is general and is not tied to any
specific instrument, and so requires an extra symbolic operation: translating from written music to which
note to play, and then translating the note to be played to a specific action on your instrument (ie, which
tine to play on the kalimba). Kalimba Tablature is more physically symbolic of the specific kalimba you
have in your hand. Instead of five lines, the kalimba tablature in this book has 8, 9, 11, 15, or 17 spaces,
each representing a kalimba tine, running up the page from bottom to top. The advantage is its simplicity:
it is just a map of your kalimba, and it shows you which tines to play, and when. You don’t need to know
anything about which note you are playing, though it doesn’t hurt to know. A disadvantage is that you
need a different sort of tablature for each new kalimba. However, once you learn how to read the tabla-
ture for one kalimba, you will find the tablature for the other kalimbas to be very similar.

Here is a short two measure example of the Alto kalimba’s tabla-

ture, or tab for short. The diagram looks like the tines of an Alto
kalimba. The thin dark line in the center indicates an invisible
boundary between tines which generally belong to the right and
left thumbs. On the Alto kalimba, several tines are painted to help
you keep your place. We shade those tines in the tab, which helps
you transfer the note from the page to your kalimba. The longer
tines are represented as longer in the tab. If you understand a bit of
music theory, the note names included at the bottom will be help-
ful. Some duets use kalimbas with non-standard tunings, and the
note names will indicate how to tune your kalimba. The numbers
to the right of the tab indicate the measure number. The horizonal
line next to 2 is a bar line, and this is the beginning of measure 2.
The symbol at the very top, a double horizontal line with two small Alto Tablature
dots, means “repeat”. If a number is shown between the two dots,
that tells you how many times to repeat (if no number is present, just repeat once; if 2 is present, play it
the first time, then repeat twice, or 3 times in all). The 3/4 at bottom left indicates this piece is in “3/4
time”, which means three beats per measure and a quarter note gets a beat.

To the left is a two measure example of Sansula tablature.

Sansula Tablature
The tines on a sansula do not make a simple triangular
pattern as the Alto does, so we don’t try to represent that
detail in the tab. An important detail to note is the use of
shaded tines in the Sansula tablature. The Sansula has no
shaded tines, but the four short, raised tines are represented
in the tab with shaded spaces. This use of shading, to
represent shorter tines interleaved among longer, unshaded
tines, is used for the Sansula, the Cloud 9 Marimbula, and
for the Hugh Tracey Karimba. This tab does not indicate a
time signature; in this book, if no time signature is pro-
vided, 4/4 time is assumed. The “T=150” in the lower left
indicates the tempo is 150 beats per minute. If no tempo is
indicated, the piece was written at 120 bpm.
4
If almost none of that made sense, if you don’t know what a quarter note or a time signature is, you may
need some more help with this tablature. You could: a) consult a friend who knows how to read music, as
the rhythmic aspects of tablature and staff music are identical, b) download the Duets KPack from the
website http://ktabs.theirhouse.org and listen to how the songs go, comparing the sound to what the
tablature looks like, and you’ll probably get it, c) purchase one of the easier books from my website
http://www.kalimbamagic.com, or d) drop me an email at kalimba@markholdaway.com.

Some notes on conventions: separate parts, different repeats

Often duets are written with the two parts connected, measure by measure. Instead, we print each
instrument’s part separately. In so doing, we sometimes break standard conventions and it may appear
that the two different parts have different numbers of measures. If this appears to be the case, then the
part that appears shorter will compensate for this apparent difference by repeating some section more
times so that the actual length of the two parts is the same. This should become apparent when you play
the KTabS versions. Several duets are more than two pages long, so you will have to copy one part, and
one player can look at the book while the other player looks at the copy. If not stated explicitly, the music
was composed or arranged for kalimba by Mark Holdaway.

Tuning Your Kalimba

The most important thing you can do to make this music sound good is to be in tune. I recommend the
Korg CA-30 electronic tuner, which costs $20-$30. For more tuning tips, check the archive of the Ka-
limba Tips of the Day at http://www.kalimbamagic.com/tipoftheday/tip.php

Where to Get Kalimbas

African Musical Instruments makes the Hugh Tracey kalimbas used in this book: the Alto, Treble, Kar-
imba, Pentatonic, and Treblito. If you go to www.kalimbamagic.com, you can look up the Hugh Tracey
Kalimba retailers (I always like to play an instrument before I buy it), or you can purchase a kalimba on
line at the same site. As the Treblito is made by removing 8 out of the 17 tines on the Treble, you will
have to make it yourself or special order it from me. The Sansulas are made by Hokema, and they are
also available at Kalimba Magic. There are many 8-Note kalimbas available on the market, but I prefer
the Catania and Hugh Tracey 8-Note kalimbas.

Building Duets to Build Love

Of course, you are free to use this book however you want. But I’ll share with you my vision of how the
duets in this book might be used: to build trust, love, intimacy, and joy. You probably already know the
kalimba is a magical instrument capable of instantaneously changing your entire outlook on life for the
better. Just think what could happen if you unleashed that power on groups of two or three people?
There are many ways of playing together, and playing set music such as these duets is just one way. I
hope you will make these tunes your own by arranging them to suit your needs, by adding improvised
sections or creating your own original variations. Or use the ideas in these tunes as starting-off points for
your own creations. But I do hope that the music in this book helps to make your corner of the world a
better and more beautiful place.
-Blessings! -Mark Holdaway, January 2007
 5
Jewelry Box Alto and Treble

Alto Treble
6
Waters Alto Sharon Eaton & Mark Holdaway
 7
Waters Treble Sharon Eaton & Mark Holdaway
8
A Sansula Song Sansula and Cloud 9

Sansula Cloud 9
 9
Hourglass Sansula and Alto

Sansula Alto
10
Silly Duet Treble and Alto

Treble Alto
 11
Lazy Summer Alto, Cloud 9, and Treble
The alto and treble kalimbas require special tunings.

Alto Cloud 9 Treble

This song is in the key of C and requires retuning the alto and treble kalimbas. Let the treble chords ring
out, and use your wah wah. Try other chords and see how they work.
12
Lilting Lullaby Treble, p 1 Sharon Eaton
This piece requires tuning to the key of C.

The alto and treble kalimbas come in the key of G, ie with F#. Tune them down to F natural to get to the key of C.
 13
Lilting Lullaby Alto, p 1 Sharon Eaton
This piece requires tuning to the key of C.

The alto and treble kalimbas come in the key of G, ie with F#. Tune them down to F natural to get to the key of C.
14
Lilting Lullaby Treble, p 2 Sharon Eaton
This piece requires tuning to the key of C.
 15
Lilting Lullaby Alto, p 2 Sharon Eaton
This piece requires tuning to the key of C.
16
Dark and Light Alto

This is the title track to

Mark Holdaway’s new
CD, Between the Dark
and the Light. The two
kalimbas trade off parts
that compliment each
other, two sides of a Yin-
Yang symbol.
 17
Dark and Light Treble
18
Dona Nobis Pachem Four Altos

This song is a well-known round with

three different parts. The first three Alto
parts correspond more or less to the vocal
parts. You can play the 2nd and 3rd parts
on a Treble with no problem.

Alto 1 Alto 2
 19

Usually this round is sung without

instrumental accompaniment. However,
the kalimba makes a beautiful compli-
ment to the vocals. This fancy part can
go well with the three vocal parts.

Alto 3 Fancy Alto

20
Buddy Holly Alto and Alto

Alto 1 Alto 2
 21
Out of the Whirlwind Sansula and Treblito

Sansula Treblito
22
Out of the Whirlwind (variation) Sansula

Variations are easy to make on the ka-

limba. An easy way to make a variation
is to make a mistake that happens to
sound good. If you do that, just make a
note of what you did different, and file
that away in your index of variations.
You can build complicated structures by
arranging the variations, either in advance
or “on the fly”.

Here are variations on the song on the

previous page. You could mix and match,
using one treblito part and the other
sansula part, but note that the parts here
are 16 measures, while the parts on the
previous page are 8 measures.
 23
Out of the Whirlwind (variation) Treblito
24
Snow Day Treble, p 1 Sharon Eaton & Mark Holdaway
 25
Snow Day Alto, p 1 Sharon Eaton & Mark Holdaway
26
Snow Day Treble, p 2 Sharon Eaton & Mark Holdaway
 27
Snow Day Alto, p 2 Sharon Eaton & Mark Holdaway
28
Rest Stop Treble Mark Holdaway and Deb Driskill
 29
Rest Stop Alto Mark Holdaway and Deb Driskill
30
Rest Stop Cloud 9 Mark Holdaway and Deb Driskill
 31
The Peanut Vendor Cloud 9 Simons & Sunshine
32
The Peanut Vendor Alto Simons & Sunshine

This is a famous standard in

Latin Jazz, and you can find
many good recordings of it. One
of the less known recordings is
on my Kalimba CD, Between the
Dark and the Light. It works
perfectly well as a duet between
the Alto and the Treble, but a
bass part really makes it swing.
If you don’t have a Cloud Nine
Marimbula, see if you can get
someone to play an upright bass
part.

Once the Alto accompaniment

riff is going, the Treble kalimba
could improvise all day long, but
the Treble part shown here
should get you started!
 33
The Peanut Vendor Treble Simons & Sunshine
34
Cloud Walk Alto
 35
Cloud Walk Treble
36
Cloud Walk Cloud 9
 37
Go Down Into Your Cellar Alto and Treble traditional

Alto Treble
38
African Karimba

It is easier to play African-sounding melo-

dies on the African Karimba and the
pentatonic kalimba. I have retuned my
personal karimba from its native A down
to G so it can play with the other Hugh
Tracey kalimbas.
 39
African Pentatonic

The pentatonic kalimba is a good choice for

a lead instrument against the textured fabric
of the karimba.
40
GreyCat Sansula & Treblito Della Estrada & Mark Holdaway

Sansula Treblito