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SongsLinstead Market
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3 more songs need notes this instrument does not have. Changing the size or key brings some of them into reach.

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Jamaican traditional; as printed by Walter Jekyll in “Jamaican Song and Story”, 1907, No. 121. Public domain.

17 tines · C4–E6 · C major · The standard. Almost every tab you find is written for this.

Tap a tine, or drag across them for a glissando. On a keyboard the letters on the tines are the ones to press — they follow the tines left to right.

KalimbaFree · printable · plays in your browser

Linstead Market — Kalimba Tabs

Linstead Market, written out for the kalimba as number tabs with the letter under every note and set up above on the 17-key, an octave higher. Press Play to hear it, Practice to learn it one note at a time — the kalimba waits for you — or Play along to keep time with it.

  • Notes58, 7 pitches
  • RangeB4–A5
  • Key hereC major
  • Tempo190 bpm · about 30 s
  • LevelIntermediate

Can a kalimba play Linstead Market?

2 of the 5 here do. The check is made note by note against what each one can actually sound. Where the tune does not fit as the library writes it, another key or octave is tried, and the table says which; where nothing fits, it names the notes that are missing.

  • 7-note✕ Cannot play itNeeds B3, which it does not have
  • 8-key✕ Cannot play itNeeds B3, which it does not have
  • 10-key✕ Cannot play itNeeds B3, which it does not have
  • 17-key↕ Plays, movedPlayed an octave higher: C major, B4–A5 · loaded above
  • 21-key✓ Plays as writtenIn C major, B3–A4 · load it

Linstead Market: kalimba tabs

The large line is the number stamped on the tine; the small line under it is its letter name. A dash holds the note another beat, an underline is half a beat, and a dot beside a note makes it half as long again. Each line is one phrase.

▶ Play it above

Linstead Market — kalimba tabs (17-key) · tonalics.com

The 7 notes it uses

Lowest to highest, with how many times each is played. Learn these 7 and you can play the whole tune.

  • 7B4×2
  • 1•C5×6
  • 2•D5×9
  • 3•E5×15
  • 4•F5×8
  • 5•G5×14
  • 6•A5×4

What to expect on a kalimba

  • It runs from B4 to A5, a minor seventh, using 7 different notes. That leaves 11 semitones unused below and 7 above.
  • 88% of its moves are a step or a repeated note. The widest is a major third, C5 to E5, at note 29.
  • The left thumb plays 35 notes and the right 23. 7 times one thumb plays two different tines in a row — those are the spots to slow down for.
  • The furthest it reaches from the centre is the 6th tine out.

About the tune

A Jamaican folk song about a market woman who carries her ackee to Linstead on a Saturday night and sells none of it. The tab follows the earliest printed version, No. 121 in Walter Jekyll’s Jamaican Song and Story of 1907.

Jamaican traditional; as printed by Walter Jekyll in “Jamaican Song and Story”, 1907, No. 121. Public domain. More about Linstead Market →

Linstead Market on other instruments

The same melody, in each instrument’s own notation. It is not offered for the guzheng or handpan, which do not have the notes.

More songs for the kalimba

All 34 kalimba songs · Christmas songs for kalimba · The online kalimba on its own

Playing it on a real kalimba?

If it sounds wrong, check the instrument before the notes. The kalimba tuner listens through your microphone and names what each note is actually sounding.

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