Instructions - oakleyaidan21/KalimbaLibre GitHub Wiki

You can find instructions for each page of the website here.

First time accessing Kalimba Libre?

If this is your first encounter with Kalimba Libre, first off: welcome! It's always awesome to have more people interested in this instrument.

When you first navigate to https://kalimbalibre.now.sh/, you'll be met by a mostly-empty landing page. If/When this site takes off, this will probably be populated with popular songs, blog posts, etc. However, right now, the only important thing here is the Login button in the top right. Click on it and you'll be prompted to login, but since you're new, you'll want to create a new account. Don't worry, creating an account is only to tie songs to your name; there are no catches like being subscribed to a newsletter, needing to put in a credit card, etc. Do so, and you'll be redirected to your Home Page.

Home Page

From here, you'll once again be met by a mostly empty screen. This is where you'll see every song you've created, so in order to make one, press the blue + Create button! After you enter a title and key signature, you'll be redirected to a New Tab

New Tab

This is where the meat of Kalimba Libre lies. Let me give a quick introduction to the main components of this page:

Config

On the left, you'll see a box where you can change the Title and Tempo of your song. Pretty simple.

Kalimba

In the middle, you'll see a visual representation of the kalimba. Drag your mouse over it! You'll see that the kalimba is divided into rows of notes (the green blocks), which you can click on in order to place a note down. Try it. A quarter note should appear in the note you placed. Cool, we have a note down. Press the blue PLAY button in the top right to play your "song". You can add some more notes if you want, but the next component will assist in giving our song some rhythm.

Note Selector

On the right is the last of the important components: the Note Selector. Right now, it will be filled with buttons with icons corresponding to a rhythm. Click a note to select it as the note you want to place onto the kalimba.

There are also buttons for dotting notes, making notes rest, and tying notes together. Dotting and Resting is self explanatory, but right now there are some caveats for tying notes together:

Tying Notes

In order to create a tied note, click on the tie button in selector. Now, select which notes you'd like to tie together by clicking each in the Selector. For example, say I wanted to tie a half note, quarter note, and eighth note together. Here's which buttons I would press:

tie > 2 > 4 > 8

To place this note, just click on the kalimba where you want it. Due to the fundamental structure of this program, the icon of a tied note will show up as not the note it's supposed to be. I'll eventually have a fix for this, but for now just remember that this note is tied. When you come back after saving this song, it will show up as a whole note, which is the programs default if it doesn't have an icon for a note. It will still play its actual amount, though.

If you want to stop tying a note together, just press the tie button again.

Saving Songs

After adding some notes to the kalimba, you can now save your song! In order to do so, press Save in the top right. You'll then be prompted to save it as private or public. Pick whichever you want, and then go back to your Home Page by clicking Your Songs in the left of the navbar. If everything went well, you should see a square of your song!