"How told Hold Different Styles of 4 Mallets" - By Nicolas A P

 

Marimba, Vibraphone and Xylophone are examples of mallet type percussion instruments used in a concert or orchestra setting but are also used for marching bands. They are large instruments that have the same layout as a piano but with big wooden keys for marimba and xylo keyboards or with metal keys for vibraphone keyboards. 4 mallets is a technique where you hold two mallets in one hand so players can play chords on the keyboard and generate large sound and create harmonies when played with multiple people. I will be explaining the ways one how to hole two different grips, Stevens grip which is the most common and the easiest and traditional grip which is a little more challenging but fun to use when playing chords.

Tools: Only tools you need are a pair of mallets to hold in one hand or two pairs to hold two mallets in each hand.

Stevens Grip

1)Place the bottom of the mallet in the center of your palm, this will become the foundation of where to put the 2nd, or outside mallet and is the base for where the 1st, or inside mallet is. There are many types of grip but this grip is called Steven’s grip.

 

 

2)Next relax your index finger and your thumb letting the mallet fall into the first indent on your index finger and just simply placing your thumb on top of the mallet to gain control of the mallet.

 

 

3) The last part is to add the outside mallet. This mallet will be placed in between your middle and ring finger and will be held by your ring and pinky finger. You want to make sure that there is not a lot of slack hanging off from the outside mallet or else it will cause insufficient playing and bad technique and could result in some pain from holding the mallet wrong and using the wrong muscles and result to injury (this has happened to me before it is not fun). You want to make sure there is only about a third of an inch of slack left and have it rest on the fatty part of your hand. After, place your middle finger on the inside mallet where it will hold it for more control and the result in a normal state should look like a pizza shape and that is how you know you are holding the mallets right. After that you are now holding the 4 mallet grip called Stevens grip. It is a good beginner technique and mainly used in west-coast type playing in the marching band aspect which is more flowy and has more use of the arm.

 

 

Traditional Grip

1) Place the mallets in a cross form on a table, bed, or on your keyboard. Simply just grab the mallets with your ring and pinky finger at the intersection of the mallets. Make sure the mallets  are still crossed or else the grip won’t work. 

  

 

2) The last thing is to place your middle finger on the outside mallet this time to control and make sure it doesn’t fly everywhere. Then place your index and thumb in the intersection of the mallets and hold it as if your fingers are making a “claw”. Traditional grip is one of the oldest types of grips and mainly used for east coast type marching style since it is better for playing octaves and playing loud and good for using the wrist “knocking” type of motion which is the normal technique for playing chords on the keyboard but west coast uses more arm while east coast uses more wrist and traditional grip is good for that. 

 

 

Last Step)

The last step for both of these techniques is to just practice practice practice. It takes a while to get used to these techniques and doesn’t happen right off the bat. Just make sure you hold the mallets with the right technique and you will eventually build muscles to hold heavier mallets. In the process of playing with these grips and with heavier mallets, you will start to blister in spots such as the center of your palm and your middle finger. Those are the normal spots to blister and it is normal and is just your hand building up calluses to build endurance holding mallets so your hands won’t get tired as fast. If you get blisters anywhere else such as the pinky, ring finger or thumb or feel sharp pain anywhere on your hand, you may want to look at how you are holding the mallets because those types of causes are from holding the mallets wrong, but if you continue practicing even just 15 minutes a day, you will eventually build the stamina in your hands and grow better as a player and play cool music on your own on either marimba, vibraphone, xylophone or any other mallet instrument.