New to Kalimbas? Follow These Inspiring Kalimba Artists

Thinking of getting your first kalimba or have one and in need of some inspiration?

While a lot of kalimba playing musicians have some prior experience with learning music, many out there have decided to pick up the kalimba as their very first instrument. So take it slow and learn how to play at your own pace. The only competition you should be worried about is yourself.

There are a number of excellent kalimba players and each one has their own unique style that makes you want to learn to play. To help you out, here are a few kalimba artists that make your kalimba learning journey fun.

1. April Yang

Source: China Daily

April Yang's videos have inspired numerous kalimba players into wanting to learn to play. A music lover since childhood, she fell in love with the kalimba, (or thumb piano), at first sight when her African friends showed her the African musical instrument in 2015.

Yang redesigned the instrument by rearranging the keys and altering the wooden materials to improve the sound. Through dedication, she spent over a year testing out more than 50 different versions before finally settling with the present design. To encourage others, Yang also prepared teaching materials and kalimba-exclusive music scores for beginners.

April Yang has a playlist for beginners called April's Kalimba Classroom, which are also available on Facebook). She even includes original kalimba tablature videos and many esthetically pleasing kalimba videos that have made many more fall in love with the kalimba.

2. Sandrah Araja

Source: Instagram

Source: Instagram

Sandrah Araja, a very well-known kalimba player, is from the Philippines. She is known for her aesthetic kalimba videos, many of which include numbers by K-Pop bands. Most importantly, Sandrah Araja's YouTube videos include easy-to-read K-tabs for songs, making her channel a wonderful source for new music to try.

Sandrah Araja is also on Instragram and other social media sites. To know a little more, she recently gave an exclusive video interview you might want to watch.

3. Limba Trip

If you're looking to be inspired by some contemporary kalimba playing, check out these artistic styles of YouTube music videos by Yohei Kisanuki, a Japanese kalimba player. He specialises in playing the chromatic kalimba and a bass guitar.

Check out Limba Trip's YouTube videos and give him a follow on Instagram too.

4. Eva Auner

Eva Auner, a youthful kalimba player, creates dreamy cinematic videos of herself playing this charming wooden instrument. A few years ago she came upon kalimba playing videos on YouTube and fell in love with the instrument. Her family gifted her one on a birthday and the rest it history.

Auner has had previous experience with playing the piano during her childhood years, which made it easy for her to get accustomed to the kalimba.

You can find her gorgeous videos on YouTube as well as on Instagram. She also  has a dedicated YouTube account for tabs of the songs she plays.

5. Jane Libella

Very few kalimbaists play with short nails and Jane Libella is among those few.

As someone who types often and with a personal preference for short nails, Libella's videos were a pleasant sight; and seeing her nails in her kalimba rendition of Creep by Radiohead was what finally convinced me that maybe a kalimba would not be such a bad idea after all.

You can check out more of Libella's kalimba videos or find her on Instagram too.

6. Shryma

Shryma playing Maybe by Yiruma was among the first kalimba videos I came across. She often plays her Nalu acrylic kalimba outdoors amongst nature. Shryma is also on Twitter and even posts videos of herself playing the piano, water colour paintings and other fun interests on Instagram.

Do you know some more musicians you think other kalimba fans should be following? Link them in the comments below!