8 Key Kalimba Thumb Piano - Mini Wooden Finger Piano for Adults Beginners Small Musical Instrument with Tuning

Very low quality Read more

there's been a lot of trial and error with this. to be fair, it's my first kalimba, so that's certainly part of it. but here's what I've learned so far: * if you hold it too firmly, the sound is terrible. hold it as loosely as you can so it resonates. there's no hole to allow for the vibration, so it's a bit tricky to hold it but not hold it. * the numbers, from left to right, are: | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 |. that should correspond to a major scale. (do, re, mi, etc). * it does NOT come tuned. when it arrived, 2 and 3 sounded the same, and 4 and 5 sounded the same. * there are apps you can download to help you tune your kalimba. that's helpful, really. the one they recommended didn't show up in the app store for me, but there are others. * there is no tuning equipment included. I used a marker with a thick bottom. you slide the bars up and down until they're in tune. * the bars are right next to each other so be prepared to tune each one multiple times because you bumped it while tuning the one next door. * there is nothing keeping the bars from sliding side to side. so while the back is heart-shaped, the bars, if you're not paying attention, will slide right or left and now they're hanging down past the wood backer. * playing the kalimba requires thumbnails unless you hate your thumbs. if you want to use it frequently, I recommend growing them out 1/4" and plucking them with the nail. overall, it's been a frustrating experience. it does play. I strum it once in a while. but I have yet to get it in tune, so I can't actually play a melody. I probably should've gotten a full-sized one. for a child who's got a weekend at the cabin, this might be just the thing...so long as you're in another room. hope this helped! Read more

The media could not be loaded. I love this cute little kalimba! It’s a toy, nice to pass the time to create a few little melodies. It comes with a pendant cord. I didn’t know how to attach it to the cord, but I looked up a tutorial on YouTube, and it does show you the process of how to do it. Just look up how to attach a pendant to a Chinese rope cord. They also provide a ball chain. The kalimba is made of wood, with metal tines. The tines play a nice sound. Watch my video to get an idea of the sounds. It includes an instruction booklet with some simple songs and how to tune the kalimba. They do not include the tuning key shown in the booklet. The price is very reasonable for this cute kalimba! It would make a really nice gift! Read more

So the Columbia itself feels nice quality and pretty durable, with sturdy parts that are easily adjustable and tunable. The wood seems good enough quality for the price, especially when you know what to expect when buying something this small and cheap. Obviously this is not a professional instrument, but it makes a great gift for almost anyone. The instructions tell you to download the ins tuner app, however that does not seem to exist on the app store. There is not any further instruction on how to tune the instrument unfortunately, neither are there any instructions on how to really play it or how to read the music for it but it does come with a handful of tunes to play. So while not entirely intuitive, it isn't hard to google. It comes with a necklace string and a key ring string that are both of simple quality, and nothing to write home about, but it is not a terrible quality one either. They slap the barcode across the entire box with a sticker, making this not giftable unfortunately. That said it is otherwise a pretty good little toy. I would give it more stars if there was just a little bit of better quality control, however given what you're paying for, you get exactly what you should expect. All of the minor things are the reasons for the lack of stars, and the fact that it sounds very flat, and the sheet music mentions a 0 but there's no 0 on it... Read more

This mini heart-shaped kalimba is adorable and fun to play with when you're bored or need a quick distraction. It comes with a small chain to use as a keychain, which is a nice touch. A couple of the keys sound slightly out of tune and can’t really be adjusted, but it’s still a cute novelty item. Read more

This is a palm sized thumb piano. A thumb piano makes sound by quickly stroking a metal strip. The tone is changed by the length of the metal strip. The strips are held under a wood/metal bar that is screwed into the wood, and each strip has an indent at the end to make it easier to stroke. The thumb piano is made of solid, nicely finished, heart shaped wood, with a hole drilled to attach the included lanyard or short ball chain. The ball chain is the kind typically used for key rings. The lanyard is extremely thin string, adjustable for length. The metal strips are labeled with tiny inscribed note letters. The range of this instrument is one octave. According to the enclosed list, it was also supposed to come with a "tuning hammer," which was missing. The directions said to go to a specific website, download their app, and then tune using the hammer and app. This sounds unnecessarily complex. I tuned it the usual way: loosen the strip holder just enough the strips can barely move, and then tune to a piano, or electronic tuner. Once tuned to the best of its ability, it made clearly discernible notes. It's accompanied with an instruction book in tiny print, with four songs. I didn't recognize three of them, but the fourth was a hilariously misinterpreted version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. This would be a cute gift for a musical friend, or to add to a collection of children's musical noise makers. The sound is too soft to stand up to singing, high pitched, and tunable only to the best approximation of a standard note. The wood is nicely finished into a heart shape, but only as big as about the palm of my hand. I marked this item down due to missing "tuning hammer"; the unnecessarily complex tuning method; and the thin lanyard, which provides a strangulation hazard. Read more