
Holiday Gifts that Give Back


Shop Seed Bead Jewelry Collection
Shop Seed Bead Jewelry Collection
These delightful hand-held instruments can be combined for masterful sound layering - utilized by professional musicians and sound practitioners as well as by non-musicians who are longing for the power to make their own music. Kalimbas and hand-chimes are safe for kids and delight adults.
After suffering a debilitating illness, David Naylor found himself in a hospital unable to remember who he was. During his recovery, he saw an online photo of himself sitting behind a percussion setup that would become known as the "Gathering of Drums." At the center of this setup was a Zenko Drum in the Akebono tuning - that seemed to David to serve as the "heart" of the collection. Upon being discharged, David returned to his home and was filled with wonder upon finding himself before these instruments in real life, unable to remember anything about how they came to be assembled or how he'd played them. And thus began a journey to reinvent and rediscover himself though music.
Tongue drums have become immensely popular recently and there are now a large variety of different brands out there offering their own version of these portable and robust metal instruments. You can find inexpensive ones in music stores that are usually mass produced. So what makes Zenko Drums made by Metal Sounds so special out of all the tongue drums that are out there?
With meticulous pitch-perfect tuning, the Zenko Drum allows you to discover bewitching and meditative harmonics that will level-up your sound meditation and music therapy offerings for live sessions. It's a professional grade instrument that can also be mounted on a adapted cymbal stand (there's a bolt-hole on the bottom! and we have adapters) to add accents as part of your drum kit or percussion setup.
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.
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 by Hokema Kalimbas is 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.
SPACEDRUM®, the intuitive handpan, is a metal melodic instrument inspired by the original steel drum (aka the steelpan) and by the Hang® invented by PANArt® in 2000. Metal Sounds' handpans have been designed and handcrafted since 2006, and were the first handpan producer in France.
As requirements, tastes, and desires vary, Metal Sounds offers two different lines of handpans:
The Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) International and We Play Well Together are honored to partner with the Kichwa women of Sarayaku in the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador.
We're thrilled to now be supporting this group by importing and selling their beautiful beaded jewelry on our website. We Play Well Together has donated funds to purchase the first round of artwork from the Sarayaku Women in addition to donating website and logistical support to send them to you.