HOKEMA - Sansula Basic

Product Information

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. Most people don’t hear much difference between the Renaissance Sansula and the Deluxe Sansula. I find the Deluxe Sansula to have a darker sound that I like better.

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 Sansula can be played in the energy field of clients for 1-2-1 Sound Healing and in Group Sound Baths & it is also great for self-care!This is a truly delicate sounding instrument. Imagine going into a secret room that nobody but you knows about, a place where your soul can be renewed as you surround your mind and heart with mystical beauty. That’s what playing this instrument feels like! What we thought of as the standard sansula tuning is just one of many tunings. There are literally millions of possible tunings on a 9-note sansula, and who knows how many of those would sound fantastic? The important thing is that each tuning sounds different and plays different music. So this broadens the definition of what a sansula is even further. The Goshen 8-Note Box Kalimba has the same basic tuning, except every note is a whole step higher, putting it in D major. You can still use the same 8-Note books, but if you listen to the CD, you cannot play along as it is in a different key. Read more F Major Hokema – the maker of the Sansulas – actually recommends that you first tighten the goatskin membrane, apply moisture, and then loosen the membrane. Your Deluxe Sansula comes with a hex wrench that fits on the six bolts accessible from the underside of the frame. I tried this technique, and found that it was relatively easy to tighten about half a turn (that seems to be the “rule of thumb” for kalimbas in general).

Kalimba Magic started making the first alternative sansula tunings many years ago, and we are the only people to have made instructional materials for the sansula and its alternative tunings. This series of tips is an overview of Kalimba Magic’s sansula tunings and related instructional materials. And the Deluxe Sansula, with a goatskin membrane, can (in a very dry climate) get dried out to the point that the low note sounds as both A and A sharp, beating together in a markedly unpleasant manner. So – it is a great tool for someone who wants to make mind-blowingly beautiful music with the very cool wah-wah effect, but doesn’t want to put in the effort to learn complex music. 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 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. The Renaissance Sansula has the basic Sansula kalimba mounted on a frame drum with a Remo synthetic drum skin. I don’t recommend that you actually slap the skin of the drum – it is not made for this, and its sole purpose is the augment the Sansula’s resonance. This Remo membrane is much more resilient than the original paper skin (which we do not carry because it breaks too easily), but you still need to be careful with it. 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. Most 8-Note Kalimbas have a standard tuning of the C major scale (the Goshen Box 8-Note Kalimba has the same basic note layout but is tuned to D major instead). The books assume you have this tuning. While this tuning is totally logical, there are actually a lot of other tunings that you can do wonderful things with. D Major