Kalimba 17 Keys Thumb Piano - Portable Finger Piano, High Quality African Wood, Mbira with Tuning Hammer Piano Bag Study Instruction, Kalimba Christmas Gift for Beginners

The media could not be loaded. I bought this for my house mate who is a musician.It's not a hard instrument to play - to get started you merely need to be able to wiggle your thumbs or a forefinger well enough to directly press down on the tines with gentle force. While more complex sounds can be made by experienced players using their thumb pads, finger nails, and knuckles. This Kalimba is a 17 key extended version - there's Kalimas with less notes.The instrument came out of the box in tune - one of those guitar tuners confirmed this as well as my house mate letting me know. There's an included hammer in order to fine tune the instrument, though my house mate reports that there's been no need to do so even after several weeks.The instrument sounds the loudest when you don't lay it flat on a desk (the whole box is a "sounding box" which acts as an amplifier) - ideally it should be held clamped between the legs, or using a relevant stand that holds the top end clamped between pads. In this arrangement the unit is both loud, and has a very long sustain of the notes.A perfectly fine sound for practising can be had just by laying it flat on a desk, or on the lap though.With the instrument and tuning hammer, there's two thumb protectors - medium sized. You may want to purchase some extra ones if this is a present if you already know the persons thumb size won't match!There's also a cleaning cloth, carry pouch, and three sets of stickers, red, green, and ones with the 17 notes on - these can be applied to the metal bar or the tines of the instrument, and don't leave any residue when you peel them off.There's also a good introductory booklet that takes you through all the handling and playing of the instrument, together with a few tunes to start you off.It's written in good English, and has photographs, diagrams, and tune notation of a kind that makes it easy for a complete beginner to get started.The Kalimba is sturdy enough, but in order for the sounding box to hold a note the wood the instrument is made from cannot be too thick - this means it's a little fragile as far as being banged around. For instance you can't drop it in a book bag with textbooks on the top, and drop it to the ground, it's likely cracks will form, so a little care in how you transport it is recommended.The wood has a beautiful finish, and the metal working is well crafted and also well finished - I did not find any metal shards or sharp edges on the instrument, nor anywhere that there were splinters lying in wait!As said previously, the instrument is accurately in tune, and the sounding box is well designed and provides great amplification.For the price, this is excellent value for money, and my housemate has reported no problems with it.It's a great little present!

The media could not be loaded. What a lovely instrument! This is a delight to play. I've picked it up quite easily. This video is the start of a song I'm learning and I got it yesterday. There are plenty of videos on YouTube to play along with. I would recommend checking it's in tune before you start, I downloaded a tuning app called gstrings, any will work, and then used the little hammer for ones that weren't quite right. It's quite easy with the hammer don't stress, I have no clue what I'm doing, I just whack the end of each bar and it seems to make the app say it's in tune. I'm so terrible at musical instruments, I have no patience at all or talent and yet I've managed to play a tune, so if you're like me you'll enjoy this little thing. The actual instrument is very nice, smaller than I thought but that's not a bad thing. Nice wood and well made. Looking forward to learning more tunes and tricks.

The media could not be loaded. Very cute little instrument, being a musician already it took no time at all to bash out a tune on this funky little device, and I have no doubt that it would be simple for a beginner as well. The wood feels solid and looks pretty, it came perfectly in tune, and the notes resonate nicely. My only complaint is that the top two notes are a tiny wee bit dead, but that may just be because of where they sit in the register, as it is more difficult to get a good sound out of a higher note. I've included a video of both me playing a little tune I learned quickly for this review (points to anyone who recognises it 😂) and of me playing all of the notes so you can hear for yourself what it sounds like. Overall, a very sweet sounding pretty thing! Relaxing and comforting to play.

Good Kalimba for beginners. Sounds great out of the box but I had dome difficulties tuning it. I bought Gecko Kalimba later so I gave it away for a young beginner to practice on.

I love this thing!I have been collecting small, relatively cheap instruments to use while making music. I saw a few videos with these in and I thought it would be a fun little instrument to add to the collection.It was a little tricky at first getting used to where the notes are situated but if you have played a keyboard/piano you'll pick this up relatively quickly. The size is good and has a decent thickness to hold onto while still being comfortable. The weight is also a nice Sweet spot for not tiring your arms but feels well made.The tone was great straight out of the box and comes pre tuned to key of Cmajor but is comes with a tuning hammer to re-tune to suit whatever key you want to play in. I haven't tried to re-tune it yet though so I'm not sure how difficult this would be.Honestly, this is just a fun instrument to play and noodle around on from beginners to professional musicians, the karimba will add a little joy music

Well the first off it’s not quite the same as in the picture. [no red highlights on some of the keys] but it sounds good! It arrived well tuned and feels very intuitive and fun to learn.The wood feels nice in the hand and the engraved design isn’t bad, although if you look up close, you can see that it’s definitely a machine engraved design.

Now passed my half centenary (!) and have had a go at playing various musical instruments over the years, but this is the first time ever that I have found myself starting to be able to read a musical score. The simple letter notation is much easier to play and the Kalimba Tab is also smoother, as a beginner, to play, but the ease and directness of playing the Kalimba is finally allowing me to focus on the musical score and though I am still stumbling at times I am finally starting to recognise what notes I am looking at - it is like learning a language that you hear around you every day, but have never taken the time to learn to speak yourself. So I would strongly recommend the Kalimba, both in and of itself as a musical instrument, and as a gateway into music for beginners of all ages.