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Advanced Jew's harp players face the same problem as newcomers to the art. How can one learn various playing techniques if one does't have the opportunity of attending a workshop or access to a teacher? In this category we keep you up to date with useful online workshops and videos which demonstrate how to play the Jew's harp.

In this article we would like to introduce one of those bands merging live played electronical trance music with archaic musical instruments like didgerdoos, drums and percussions, and last but not least jaw harps.

In the year 1964 the French ethnologist Jacques Lemoine spent a number of weeks in the Saiyabouri province in North-West Laos. He had a tape recorder with him and during his stay among the Hmong people he recorded music time and time again. The Hmong are a number of indigenous tribes, who live in the mountains of South China, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand.

In Germany kalimbas are produced at the workshop of Peter Hokema. Within this family business he has been making these instruments with excellent quality since 1985. Kalimbas by Hokema are made in a pentatonic tuning. One can play very well on these instruments without any musical educational background.

Looking at the European museum catalogue for musical instruments MIMO, one can find almost 170 musical instruments under the keyword “lamellaphones in Africa”. Thereby one is often very different from another one. All instruments belong to one category for which we (Non-Africans) commonly use the generic term “kalimba”.

It was the bold idea of the Chilean Nicolás Matzner Weisner to follow the Mouth harp on its way around the world. The result was eight 15-minute video episodes, the second series of which is already being aired on the Chilean TV station Canal 13. Clemens Voigt of DAN MOI was given the role of Jew's harp guru in the series.