Hello fellow kalimbers (is that a word ? 🙉), I'm new here (and also French, sorry about the possible mistakes).
Last week-end, I rediscovered my 17 keys kalimba and remembered how soothing the sound was, but also how frustrating it could get to be limited to 7 notes, so I wandered a bit on YouTube and discovered the existence of chromatic kalimbas (✨mindblown✨). So of course, I impulsively bought the cheapest one I could find on Amazon.
I'm not sure it's a great kalimba ; it sounds very tinny/metallic to me (I don't know whether it's from the lack of soundbox, or just low quality), and the A., D: and D#: are dead. Not to mention it was out of tune and the note setting was really weird : the four middle upper keys were low "EFGA" instead of sharp C, D, E and F (I think they tried to copy the Seeds setting and replaced the first sharps with the trademark low notes). Also, it came from a hardware store that doesn't sell musical instruments at all, and it was the only item in stock (my brothers say it's a cursed kalimba 👹) - BUT it was just 35 euros, so.
After retuning every key, I was finally able to play some music. Here are some of the tunes I was able to record after a few hours of practice and *lot* of takes (video).
(No, my thumbs don't sparkle in the light like some kind of kalimba-vampire, it's just the lighting that's weird 🧛♂️💩)
But I don't know. I miss the full, warm sound of my simpler kalimba, and I'm not soothed AT ALL right now, instead I just feel very tense trying to fit in chords around the melody (which kind of defeats the purpose 🤡). Does it ever come naturally with some practice ? I can't imagine playing without thinking, like I do on my harp or guitar or flute or even piano. The alternating notes still feel strange to me (but on the other hand, most chords are ready to play, it's really clever). So am I a slow learner or is it worth keeping it up ?
Also, wouldn't practicing on a better sounding kalimba be more rewarding ? Or should I be humble and try to fix this one to start with ? If so, how do you fix dead keys ? I heard of sticking a piece of paper under the key, does that work ?
And if I ended up returning this one and buying a better kalimba, where can I find one that has a full, soothing, surrounding sound like my 17k hollow body kalimba (which is just a generic brand with a cat engraved, by the way ˆˆ) ? Seeds, Hluru and Chill Angels all seem to have solid bodies like the chromatic one I just bought, so that's a risk. I mean, maybe I just don't like solid bodies, who knows ?
Aaaaah.
Sorry about the rant ! I'm in a hate/love relationship with chromatic kalimba right now, I keep wanting to grab it and play, and getting frustrated with the sound and my lack of progress, so that's confusing.
Thank you :)