Newlam Kalimba Thumb Piano 17 Keys, Portable Mbira Finger Piano Gifts for Kids and Adults Beginners

I absolutely love this! It’s beautiful to look at but the tone lovely as well. It’s a nice size and very easy to hold while you play. I’m a pianist so it’s been a challenge to go back and forth for each note but it now comes very easily. It has kept it time very well once I tuned out perfectly. It’s a very fun and rewarding instrument for beginners as well as others.

This is the first instrument I bought since the recorder I had to get in elementary school. I got this for myself as something to play with as a new pastime. I've had a lot of fun with it so I want to leave a review of my experience. The kalimba came in with no scratches or any damage. However, a few keys needed to be tuned. The box kit comes with a tuning hammer and a booklet that shows apps you can use to tune your kalimba. Took me a few hours to tune it. I made sure to look up some youtube videos for how to tune my kalimba (Tip's Kalimba) beforehand. Each key has its respective note engraved. The kit provides green and red stickers you can put on the keys as reference points to make playing off sheet music easier. I don't use the stickers as personal preference but I can see the benefit a beginner could get out of using them. The booklet provided contains well-rounded information for your kalimba and even gives a beginner guide to learning kalimba sheet music along with a few example songs. Although it teaches you to read kalimba sheet music, I prefer writing down my own created sheet music notes in a notebook. It takes time, but it is a fun process. I find myself playing random combination of keys following no song in particular just to hear the sweet sound the kalimba produces. It's like controlled wind chimes. The thumb caps were a size too small for my thumbs but thankfully the box kit provided a small soft cloth to clean the kalimba keys with after use so I could just use my fingers without cover-caps with no worry. Always clean your keys after finishing playing with your kalimba with a dry cloth, like the one provided, to prevent rusting from the oil residue your fingers can leave on the keys. After use I always wipe down my keys and put it in the provided black bag to prevent it from catching any dust. The sound from the kalimba is very pretty and loud enough to play it to a group of friends or for a microphone to easily pick up the tunes. I was able to play my kalimba over a call to a friend via an iPhone 5, iPhone X, as well as over an ikedon mic without issue. The kalimba is roughly 5½ in. Length, 4in. Width, 1in. Height. Overall, it is a great product for yourself or as a gift considering it is very easy to play. I really enjoy playing my new kalimba.

Off the bat, I'm going to be reviewing this kalimba as a Starter/beginner kalimba and not as an extremely professional, high-end piece. I've been playing kalimba for a very short amount of time on my partner's much more expensive alto kalimba and loving it. But the alto has fewer keys and the keys are set up opposite of a usual 17 key and finding tabs for the alto was very difficult. I'm someone who gets into hobbies and then drops them a few months, even weeks, later so I didn't want to purchase a pricey kalimba if I wasn't invested. That's where this kalimba comes in. For a little over $20, I figured I could mess around with it, see if I enjoyed the instrument before purchasing an expensive kalimba. I was extremely surprised by my initial impressions of this kalimba. The look of the instrument is absolutely stunning and the sound right out of the box is lovely. I believe I may need to tune the furthest keys as they are a little buzzy but, overall, you get a pretty solid piece for next to nothing cost-wise. Pros - Very inexpensive - Beautiful appearance - Classic, "music-box" sound - Tune correctly out of the box (two keys are any exception) - Lots of goodies (tuning hammer, manual and music tabs book, stickers for the keys, black bag for storage) - Ergonomic shape with the side dents for your thumb to rest - Like most kalimbas, learning the basic mechanics of how to play is very easy - Engraved keys (the listing and many Q&As answered by the seller say the keys are not engraved but mine did come engraved and I think it is absolutely beautiful plus helpful) Cons - Multiple reviewers experienced the same damage from a crack starting at the soundhole and running to the base after a month+ of owning (I have not experienced this but will update if this happens) - Tuning hammer feels it is made of cheap material (will see if this is a problem later on) - No real paper trail on where this instrument was manufactured (may not be a con or even a care for many but knowing where your piece was made and exactly by who can be important for some) - Does not include a pickup (this might be a moot point for many but, higher-end kalimbas, such as the alto kalimba from Kalimba Magic I first started playing on, have an electronic pickup for amps) - No ability to request non-standard tuning (the vast majority of people want a kalimba tuned in Standard G. However, if you want a different tuning [aren't confident you could do that yourself], you won't be able to ask with any of the kalimbas found on Amazon for a different tuning like you can with other manufacturers like Kalimba Magic) Pro/Con/Neutral - Small (great for children and folks with small hands like me but might be annoying for someone with larger hands) - Lightweight (again, great for children and small-handed folks but could be frustrating for someone who wants a hefty instrument) - While gorgeous, I do question the quality of materials used. The craftsmanship is beautiful but, without knowing the specific source of all the material, it is difficult to provide feedback on the quality. I've included a few pictures and a (poorly focused) video of the kalimba being played. You may be able to hear the "buzzy" or "fuzzy" end keys in the video but, overall, this was tuned wonderfully. Additionally, I have not tuned or done anything to the kalimba besides play it a few times. This is the sound out of the box. I think this piece does the job for anyone test-running if they want a kalimba or not. It is very cheap which makes it easier to jump into; no pressure if you don't enjoy it and decide to give it away, donate, or just leave it on your shelf to mess about with once every few months. For a starter kalimba (barring any sudden and random damage as other reviewers have experienced with this specific piece) I rate this 5/5. It has everything a starter kalimba should have at a price point that is very difficult to beat. Compared to other, high-end and professional kalimbas, it absolutely lacks in multiple areas but, if you're just test-running this interesting and wonderful instrument, this little piece will help you explore. And, when you're ready to upgrade to a professional kalimba, you won't feel as though you wasted any money or time with this little cheapy buddy!

This was such a fun find and made for a great Christmas gift. It sounds beautiful and is easy to get started learning how to play. I want to get one for myself now. The wood is also really nice, it just seems well crafted.

If you want a musical toy for your kids that isn't annoying, the kalimba is the perfect solution! It is surprisingly hard to play if you want to play an actual song, because the notes are not side by side as they are on a piano or string instrument. With some hard concentration and a good dose of intuition you can work out a tune, after some hard work. But for kids who just want to make sounds, it is perfect. It does hurt the fingers to play for very long. The hammer is really too dangerous for kids, though it solves the hurt finger problem, plus it makes the dinging sound so loud it hurts the ears. My one complaint is that one of the metal bars wiggles out of place a little bit, but it can be put right back and it hasn't broken. The wood is high quality and it really feels like a fine item, (so much so that my husband doesn't want the kids to play with it which defeats the entire purpose of it as a toy...,). If you like quality wooden toys for your kids that make beautiful, non annoying sounds (so long as they do not use the hammer), get your kid this kalimba!

Great quality!! It’s beautiful and really well made. Really great price too.

This music device is really beautiful and compact. You can easily take it with you while traveling, and it has such a calming, relaxing sound. I absolutely love it!

This product has got some nice weight and sturdiness to it. I bought it for my 2 year old. He was amazed to be honest. Easy for a toddler to use and easy for an adult to learn. The package comes with a tiny booklet on a handful of songs and stickers to mark your keys. It comes with”tuned” but according to the booklet where I read about the app to help you tune it, it was off key. So that took a good thirty minutes to adjust before wrapping it as a gift. Very soft music, this does come with finger protectors and a little hammer for the adjustments. Comes with its own little bag as well for traveling. I can’t see it breaking or chipping.

The best klimba I bought at first the beautiful klimba with strong wood smell and the sound is loud than the others and the box have klimba tuning hammer the red and green notes and litters and bag finally the klimba with cloth and small book you can understand how to play it and have some songs you can do it on this klimba if you want best klimba that's it

Ich habe die Newlam Kalimba vor einiger Zeit gekauft und bin sehr zufrieden. ​Das Produkt entspricht der Beschreibung des Verkäufers. Es ist, meine Meinung nach, solide verarbeitet und optisch sehr schön. ​ Die Lieferung war pünktlich, sicher und vernünftig verpackt. Das Zubehör ist für meine Bedürfnisse sehr gut durchdach. Der stabile Beutel ist praktisch zum Mitnehmen. Die Anleitung mit den Noten habe ich immer dabei. Ich nutze die Kalimba zwischendurch zum Abschalten und Entspannen – genau wie ich es mir vorgestellt habe. Mein ​Fazit: Ein tolles Produkt zu einem fairen Preis. Vielen Dank!

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Delivered on time, with information and a downloadable music book, easy to play from day 1, the teenagers love it!

È stato il regalo di natale per mio figlio amante degli strumenti "strani"e si è rivelato molto simpatico, fatto bene, suona bene, con un martellino a corredo per accordare, anche se arriva pronto.