How to play the Chord Magnets on the Hokema B17 Kalimba
Over the past winter, Peter Hokema (founder of Hokema kalimbas) made a charming video in on a snowy day in Germany demonstrating how to use the chord magnets to mark chords on the B17 Kalimba to more easily find the chords to play on groups of tines to accompany melodies.
We translated Peter's instructions into English and shot our own version to share on Youtube. Now that it's ready, we're now in the height of summer. We thought you'd love to receive it anyway so that watching the snow might cool you off during the hottest summer months here in North America.
The Hokema B17 Kalimba
Kalimbas are metal-tined instruments which originated in southern Africa and which can be found there in countless variations. Our Kalimba B17 C-major made byHokema Kalimbasis meticulously hand-crafted out of solid American black cherry wood. The surfaces is treated and polished with natural oils and waxes. The B17 is ideal for improvisation and intuitive playing.
The B17 comes with a collection of tiny different colored magnets. These are designed to be placed at the top of the instrument in order to mark different chords for ease of playing to easily and quickly visualize where the chords begin and end. You can place the magnets anywhere that makes sense to you, depending on the song you're playing.
7 Tines precisely tuned to c-major suitable for playing countless popular tunes.
The B17 c-major is ideal for improvisation and intuitive playing.
Solid resonance corpus of American cherry wood
A large number of well know songs can be played
Ergonomically formed tines for easy playing with the thumb
size 6.9"x 7"x 1.6"
**Scale C-major: c d e f g a h C D E F G A H C
A C-major scale consist of 7 notes. The 17 note Kalimba has 2 sets of C with an octave in-between plus another C an octave higher.
**Want the versatility of 17-notes but not feeling the vibe of the C-Major scale so much?Grab the Hokemakalimba tuning tool and re-tune the B17 to ANY scale you want!
We also recommend our new Kalimba 17 softbag in order to adequately protect the B17 when the instrument is stored or transported.
I purchased a Zaphir chime a few years ago and it pairs perfectly with my Zenko. I saw the Koshis on sale and decided to take a leap a buy several. Huge disappointment for me when I compare them to the Zahpir. The Koshi feels hollow and lifeless to me compared to the Zaphir. Because it's lightweight, it can be easier to travel with, but that's also its downside for me. The cord, outer shell all feel more like a 'toy' than a durable, lasting, resonance holder. I may try to add some type of weight to help ground these chimes, not sure, but if I'd know how different this feels compared to a Zaphir I wouldn't have made this purchase. I don't think it's a 'bad' product, I think it's just not aligning with what I've experienced in another brand.
I’m sorry to hear that you’re not entirely happy with the Koshi chimes and that you prefer the Zaphir chimes instead. I want to make sure you’re satisfied with your purchase.
If you’d like, I’d be happy to exchange the set of 3 Koshi chimes you bought for a set of 3 Zaphir chimes so you can complete your Zaphir collection. Please let me know if this works for you, and we can arrange the exchange right away.
I recently purchased a D Monolina. Meditative and meditative; a full immersion sound experience that simply wraps you in a beautiful feeling and sound. What an incredible instrument this is! I highly recommend purchasing one, or more, for meditation, relaxation, or sound baths.
