What is a .klby file?

A .klby file is a tab file — it holds which tine to play and when, not sound. There is no audio inside it: it is a small text file of note timings (usually 4–30 KB) that a player app turns into a playable tab. Downloading one is like downloading sheet music, not like downloading an MP3.

The format is read by Kalimbay (Android, iPhone, iPad), and by no other app. If you do not have it, you do not need the file — every tab on this site is also written out as number notes and letter notes on its page, readable in the browser.

How to open it

1. Tap Download .klby on a song page. The file lands in your Downloads folder.
2. Open Kalimbay, go to the Tabs tab and choose Import — or share the file to Kalimbay from your file manager. It appears at the top of the tab list.
3. Tap the tab. It plays with the tines lighting up as the notes come, and you can slow the tempo down to learn it.

If it will not import

On some Android file managers, saving a file drops the .klby extension. Kalimbay still accepts it — a file with no extension imports fine as long as its contents are valid, so you do not need to rename anything. If the app says the file is invalid, the download was almost certainly cut off: download it again.

What is inside

Plain text (JSON), no encryption: the song title, the tempo, and a list of notes with the tine number and the millisecond they are played. Nothing executable, nothing that runs on its own — that is also why it is safe to keep and to share.