Kalimba key counts: 7, 8, 17 and 21

Kalimbas are sold by number of tines, and the number is the first thing a buyer has to decide with no information. Here is what each one is actually for.

The short version

Seven and eight keys

One octave, do to do, and often not even that. These are close to the traditional instruments the modern kalimba was modelled on, and they are genuinely fine for what they are.

The catch is arithmetic. Most melodies wander more than an octave, so on a seven-key board you will constantly find a tune runs off the end. Fine for a child, frustrating for an adult who wanted to play a song they had in mind.

Seventeen keys, the default

Seventeen tines tuned to a plain C major scale, running from C4 to E6. Here is the whole board, in pitch order:

• C
• D
• E
• F
• G
• A
• B
• C
• D
• E
• F
• G
• A
• B
• C
• D
• E

Two octaves and a major third. That is enough for the large majority of folk tunes and pop melodies, and it is small enough to hold in two hands with both thumbs reaching everything.

The reason it is the standard is more circular than musical. It became common, so tab got written for it, so more people bought it. If you are buying one instrument and do not have a specific reason to do otherwise, buy the seventeen.

Twenty-one keys

A 21 is a 17 with four extra tines added at the bottom, taking the range down to F3. Those four are the only difference, and the upper part of the board is untouched, so tab written for a 17 still works:

• F
• G
• A
• B

What you gain is bass, which fills out chords and makes accompaniment sound less thin. What you lose is reach. The board is wider, the tines are more crowded, and your thumbs have further to travel, so fast passages are harder.

I would not recommend a 21 as a first instrument. It solves a problem you have not got yet.

What no key count fixes

Every one of these boards is diatonic. Seven note names, no sharps, no flats. Adding tines adds range, never accidentals.

That is the real limit, and it shows up as soon as you try to play something that modulates. Our browser kalimba is a 17, and of a hundred public-domain melodies it plays seventy-six. Not one of the twenty-four refusals is too wide for the board. Every single one is turned down for wanting a black key.

So going from 17 to 21 would not win back a single one of them. The breakdown is on the kalimba repertoire page.

Chromatic kalimbas exist

There is a two-tier design with a second row of tines on the back giving the sharps and flats. They work, they are heavier, they cost more, and playing the back row takes a technique of its own.

Worth knowing about. Not worth starting on. If you want an instrument with every note and are choosing on that basis, you probably want a keyboard rather than a kalimba with a solution bolted to it.

Next: how to read kalimba tab, and tuning one with the hammer.