HOKEMA - Sansula Basic

Product Information

The best way to understand the magic of the Sansula, and to get a feel for what the different tunings sound like, is to watch some Sansula videos.

But in the demonstration video below, I bypass the tightening and untightening and just show how to apply moisture to the goatskin. The reason for this: I have noticed that if I loosen the tension more than the “factory setting,” I can make the instrument sound much worse. So frankly, I would not even mess with the hex wrench or the tension. The Moon-10 Kalimba is a new 10-note instrument inspired by the Sansula. When you get it in Am Ake Bono tuning, it is a great companion to the Sansula. If you live – at the other extreme on the spectrum of humidity – by the sea, or in the southeast US, or along the Mississippi, your Sansula (or you) will not have this problem with dry skin. Rather, the Sansula might have an issue with rusting tines.I do like the sound, feel, and appearance of the Sansula Deluxe over the Sansula Renaissance – but the goatskin head may not be preferred by vegetarians. The goat skin of the deluxe also responds to changes in humidity. The Sansula is one of the most beautiful sounding kalimbas on the planet. It represents a confluence of superfine German engineered kalimba tines and metal pieces, a wonderful tuning and note layout that make it very easy to play, and the rich deep “wah wah” sound that is easily made with its frame drum. As such, the Sansula has very broad appeal – musical novices and inexperienced kalimba players can have great fun with the Sansula, but it can also hold the interest of experienced players, especially when one considers the alternative tunings, which are not quite as easy to make wonderful music on, but are significantly more capable. In addition, there are great books available for standard Sansula tuning as well as two alternative tunings – books that are worthy of these amazing instruments. The Hitzazkiar tuning is a Persian scale similar to the Middle Eastern tuning. Look at the right side – C E G B – these are the same notes as the standard tuning, but the notes on the left side are all one half-step above the notes on the right side. Questions? When you play the Sansula, you don’t really need to worry about which notes you are playing – you just twiddle your thumbs and out comes enchanting, mystical music. The flip side of this: if you try to make your Sansula play a song you know such as “Home on the Range” or “Happy Birthday,” you will likely have difficulties. Get the Heart-17 for those songs… the Sansula plays its own music… organic, intuitive, ambient and spontaneous. If you do live in a very humid environment, I recommend dipping a Q-tip in mineral oil and lightly coating your instrument’s tines. After letting it sit for an hour, wipe off the oil. I cannot say that this will entirely prevent the tines from rusting, but I would bet that you will get more rust-free years than if you don’t do it.

But if your home is located in a region of the world with a dry climate, and your Deluxe Sansula develops the nasty beating of the A and the A# (A# is the same as Bb), there is a simple solution: add moisture to the goatskin membrane. Nowadays, there are at least two other makers of instruments I would call sansulas: Meinl makes a 9-note sansula copy, and now the Hands On Drums people are making the kalimbula which is a sanctioned version of the sansula with genuine Hokema hardware. And truth be told, I have created 9-note sansulas on Catania and Goshen 8-note bodies. You can create your own sansula too. And, because they all can play the same sansula music, I would call them all sansulas. The Sansula is one of the coolest kalimbas in the world, and costs a lot of money too – but the good news is that you can put the Sansula tuning on your inexpensive 8-Note Kalimba. This tuning is an A minor derived from the Ake Bono scale. The Standard Sansula (which Kalimba Magic no longer carries) sounds good but has the considerable flaw that, when the instrument is dropped from a height of 1 meter or more, its paper-thin membrane will break.

Articles for the 8-Note Kalimba

By now you are getting the idea: small changes in the notes you have on your kalimba can make profound changes in the music that comes out of it. The important change in this Middle Eastern tuning is the G going to a G#. Tuning the low C down to a B, and the high C up to an E, are less important changes that serve to reinforce the E as the new root. This tuning will play very cool Middle Eastern sounding music. Student Karimba You should get an instant answer on whether your application has been successful, though in some rare cases Klarna or V12 may need to look at the application in more detail.