Onto the Tide: We’ll be unbeaten by the SEC title game. I just don’t see Bama beating Florida. Too young and too thin. But we’ll beat Auburn’s ass this year and for the next several years!

yeah man, the signature zappa sound for mallets is marimba. that’s what i studied the most in college…

marimba is such a warm sound. it’s almost like water. i consider it to be in the same range as the cello, which is my favorite non-percussion instrument.

me, too – i hope the game gets resumed tonight!

yeah, the first – and main distinction – difference, is that a marimba has wooden keys. i’ll expound on that and add more…

marimba, xylophone – wooden keys (generally Rosewood)
vibraphone, glockenspiel – metal keys

part of what makes the marimba such a difficult instrument, is what we call “graduated” keys. the keys at the low end of the keyboard are very wide and they gradually get thinner and they go up the instrument. in the case of the xylophone, all the keys are the same width and are skinny. the bars on all 4 mallet instruments shrink in length, but the marimba also shrinks in width. so, if i’m playing with 4 mallets (2 in each hand), and i play an interval of a 4th and i move it up an octave, it becomes a 5th. 2 octaves beyond that, it’s a 6th. this means you are constantly changing the spread with your thumb. not easy.

different mallets are used for each instrument. that creates different feels, as well as sounds. xylophone might have more fast passages of 2 mallet playing. and xylphone “Rags,” which are cool (but really difficult).

the vibraphone is a completely different animal. besides the fact that it’s made of metal bars, it has a pedal. all these mallet instruments are laid out like a piano – white keys & black keys (naturals/accidentals, respectively). on the marimba, xylo & bells, the black keys are “raised,” just like a piano. this is not the case on the vibes. not having that raised plane, makes it more difficult to visualize and reach. the pedal possibility is the reasoning behind this…

depressing the pedal, allows the bars to resonate and ring out. releasing the pedal, the bars need to be on an even plane. there is a piece of felt that runs along the instrument, so the bars can be muted. sometimes both need to be done at the same time. if the pedal is depressed and the instrument is sustained, there might be some notes ringing out that are dissonant and/or unwanted. so, other muting techniques need to be employed. besides “pedal dampening,” there’s “finger dampening” and “mallet muting.” it all makes the instrument very difficult.

the tubes coming down from the bars on a marimba, xylophone or vibes, are called resonators and act as an amplifier. the ones at the very low end of the 5 octave one i linked for you, are so massive, they have to be upturned. my 4.3 oct doesn’t require that. the resonator are blocked off under the bars for tuning purposes. the low bars, the cut off is low, it’s high at the high end. the resonators on the accidental plane that don’t have bars above are left open and are there for the grandiose look.

none of the resonators are closed off in a vibraphone. the discs are on a wire and can actually move! the instrument can be plugged in and there is a level to slide which regulates the speed the disc will rotate. this gives what i called the “Scooby Doo Sound” (!!!) or others might consider a “wah-wah” effect or even “leslie” (like a B3 Organ).

vibraphones are generally 3 octaves, xylophones 3.5, marimbas 4+

generally speaking about mallets:
marimba – yarn mallets w/ birch handles
xylo – hard rubber mallets w/ rattan handles
vibes – cord mallets w/ rattan handles
glock – hard plastic

just put on Duke Pearson The Right Touch. solo Blue Note release from 1067. 5-man horn section + rhythm section. good stuff! wish his solo cd’s from that era were more prevalent and easier to find…

So, maybe a stupid question coming from someone who has been as involved in music as I have: what’s the actual difference between a vibraphone and a marmiba? I always thought it was that a marimba had wood keys.

http://tinyurl.com/5o6wzd