Kalimba tuner

17-key kalimba notes in C

Where each tine sits on most 17-key kalimbas, counted from the middle, and the number the stickers and tabs use (a dot is an octave up).

8-key kalimba in C

At A4 = 440 Hz; the reference switch above moves them all.

How to tune a kalimba with this tuner

Pick 17 or 8 keys above, tap start and pluck the C in the middle, the longest tine. Let it ring, and rest your other fingers on the tines next to it so they don't ring along. The needle shows how far the tine is from its note in cents; a tick comes at five cents or closer, and the tuner moves on to the next key, low to high: D is the first tine left of the middle, E the first right, and so on outward. Plucking in another order? Tap the key you are holding to pick it. With the microphone off, a tap plays the key's note.

Tune with the hammer that came with the kalimba. Flat: tap the tip of the tine, the end you pluck, towards the bridge; the part that vibrates gets shorter and the note rises. Sharp: tap the other end, behind the bridge, towards you; the tine gets longer and the note drops. Keep the taps small. A tine's pitch goes with the inverse square of its length, so moving a 5 cm tine by 1 mm shifts it about 70 cents, three quarters of a semitone, and a tenth of a millimetre is already 7.

The 17-key layout, and why it zigzags

The lowest note, C4, is the longest tine in the middle. The notes then alternate outward, left and right, getting shorter and higher, so the C major scale zigzags from side to side and each thumb plays every other note. Neighbouring tines on one side are a third apart, so three in a row make a chord: the middle C and the two to its right are C E G. The numbers on the stickers and in kalimba tabs count the scale: 1 is C, 2 is D and so on to 7, B; one dot above means the next octave, two dots the one after.

Is a kalimba hard to tune?

No, but it is fiddly the first time: 17 tines take ten to twenty minutes, a later check two. Tune in a quiet room with the phone close to the kalimba. Pluck at the same strength each time and read the note once the bright click of the attack has gone. A tine is a bar clamped at one end, not a string: its first overtone sits at about 6.3 times the note's frequency, more than two and a half octaves up, not at a whole-number multiple, and that is the metallic shimmer you hear first. A moment later the tuner hears the note itself. If the reading jumps to a neighbour's note, a neighbour is ringing: damp it.

Does a kalimba need to be tuned?

New kalimbas are tuned before they ship and often arrive with a few tines moved on the journey, so tune it when it arrives. After that it holds well. The steel barely changes with temperature, well under a cent per degree against a few cents for a wind instrument, and a tine only moves when it is knocked, dropped or pushed while playing. Check every few weeks, after a fall, and whenever a chord sounds sour.

A tine buzzes or rattles

A buzz usually means a tine has slid sideways and touches its neighbour, or isn't seated straight on the bridge: nudge it back from the side with the hammer until it sits in line. If the bar that holds the tines rattles, tighten its screws a little, evenly. A loose sticker or a ring on your finger can buzz as well.

Retuning a C kalimba to G, or to minor

G major has one sharp, F♯: raise both F tines, F4 and F5, a semitone, which takes about 3 % less vibrating length, around 1.5 mm on a 5 cm tine. The switches here know C only, so for the F♯ tines use the any-note tuner, which names whatever it hears. A minor needs nothing: the same tines, with A as home. Many 21-key kalimbas in C add four lower tines, down to F3; tune their 17 shared notes here and the low F, G, A and B with the any-note tuner. A kalimba sold as 432 Hz: switch the reference under the needle to A = 432.

Kalimba tuner app, clip-on or this page

Any chromatic tuner reads a kalimba, as an app or here in the browser. A clip-on on the end of the box reads the vibration and ignores the room, useful when it is noisy. What this page adds is the key list: it asks for the right note for each tine, says which way to tap, and plays the note when you want to hear it.

The notes you tuned go into Brumm as a short melody over a beat.