“Thumb piano stuff”, I said to myself the other morning.

Then I did some googling.

I was already aware that thumb piano (or finger piano) is the same thing as kalimba, the latter being the official name of the commercially available product. Kalimba is of course based on the East & South African instrument Mbira (or ikembe).

Then I listened some authentic finger piano music.

What I got out of it was:

– Melodies aren’t very “melodic”, they just sort of float there
– No “strong” chordal stuff, meaning… lots of chords with major 3rd or 5th (interval) as a bass note
– Lots of repetition

Then I placed my hands on the keyboard and started messing around. Uncharacteristically for me, I barely used any quantization (making every note’s time exact). I wanted to keep the tune organic & lively.

So, that’s where FISH IN THE WATER came from.