Editing Mbira (section)

====Hugh Tracey====
The [[Hugh Tracey]] kalimbas are tuned [[Diatonic and chromatic|diatonically]] in the key of G. The arrangement of the notes on the Hugh Tracey kalimba borrows from the typical scheme with the lowest notes in the center and the upper notes on the left and the right, with the notes in the ascending scale alternating strictly right-left and going outwards towards the two sides.

The diatonic western kalimba tuning which Tracey used was practical for a worldwide instrument—with hundreds of African kalimba tunings, the chosen Western standard would maximise the number of people who would immediately connect with the kalimba. The practicality of this note  arrangement, with notes going up the scale in a right-left-right-left progression, is that modal 1-3-5 or 1-3-5-7 chords are made by playing adjacent tines. If chords are played in the lower octave, the same notes will appear on the opposite side of the kalimba in the upper octave, which makes it very easy to simultaneously play a melody in the upper octave and an accompanying harmony in the lower octave. So, the arrangement of notes on the Hugh Tracey kalimba (and on virtually any kalimba that copies the instrument) makes certain complex musical operations very simple.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Chords on the 17-Note Kalimba in C - Kalimba Magic|url=https://www.kalimbamagic.com/blog/item/chords-on-the-17-note-kalimba-in-c|website=www.kalimbamagic.com|date=21 June 2019 |access-date=2020-05-29}}</ref>

Alternative tunings are possible, as the tines of most kalimbas are easily pushed in and out to sharpen or flatten their pitch. Some alternative tunings simply change the key of the kalimba, without changing the note layout scheme.  C major is a popular tuning, sold by multiple manufacturers. Other alternative tunings move the kalimba to non-modal scales (such as Middle-Eastern scales). Each note of the kalimba can be tuned independently (unlike a guitar), so any scale, western or non-western, is possible, and traditional African scales are still accessible to this modern African instrument. Composer [[Georg Hajdu]] has tuned the Hugh Tracey alto kalimba to the chromatic steps of the [[Bohlen–Pierce scale]] in a piece called ''Just Her – Jester – Gesture''. The Bohlen–Pierce scale subdivides the just twelfth into 13 steps.{{Citation needed|date=August 2019}}

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px">
File:TrebleKalimba.jpg|Hugh Tracey treble kalimba
File:OctagonalTwoOctaveMbira.jpg|An octagonal mbira of high craftsmanship which spans two octaves.
File:Photowalk at Gaya Street Sunday Market, Kota Kinabalu 18.jpg|Gaya Street Sunday Market, Kota Kinabalu
</gallery>