Kalimba

n. thumb piano, mbira, African musical instrument with resonating box made of wood or a hollow gourd having tuned strips of wood or metal affixed to it which are plucked using the thumbs

Kalimba redirects here. For the Mexican singer Kalimba, see: Kalimba Marichal'. Kalimba is an instrument in the percussion family. It is a modernized version of the African mbira. It is a sound box with metal keys attached to the top to give the different notes. Also known as the African Thumb Piano.The kalimba is a musical instrument from Africa. Several reeds or tines are plucked with the thumb or fingers, and the reed vibrations are amplified by a hollow box resonator or a sounding board. The kalimba is a member of the Lamellophone family of musical instruments. The first kalimba to be exported commercially out of Africa was the Hugh Tracey Kalimba. After years of study of African music and dozens of prototype instruments, Hugh Tracey's company African Musical Instruments began manufacturing kalimbas, a western version of the mbira, in the late 1950s. The name kalimba is a Bantu word which means "little music", and is similar to the word karimba, a type of mbira.
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played with the thumbs; "thumb piano"; its sound is produced by the vibration of tongues of metal or wood; small in size. Also known as Mbira in Zimbabwe, Budongo in Uganda and Sansa in South Africa.