Local Marimba Player

Eric West · Post by **Eric West** » 3 Jun 2006 7:59 pm

I was watching our local public station this early evening and saw a great performance by a local kid named Brandon Nelson.

He did a long solo on a full marimba wth 4 mallets. I didn't get the name of the piece, but it was after being named the winner of the Portland Metro Youth Symphony soloist competition.

In his "interview" he started that he was mainly a "percussionist".

Coulda fooled me.

I'm wondering how common the "4 mallet" thing is. Very nice instrument. I've always liked the Vibes ala Lionel H.

Somebody to watch for I guess, but with his obvious talent and intelligence I doubt that he'll hang out in the "music world" too long..

What ever happened to Sid Hudson anyhow?

EJL

HowardR · Post by **HowardR** » 4 Jun 2006 4:11 am

That's interesting, Eric.

I attended the NY Uke Fest several weeks ago, and saw "The Boulder Acoustic Society" perform, which I enjoyed very much.

Their percussionist also played the marimba. He mostly played various percussive instruments and chatchkas, and played two tunes on the marimba. He was very good on everything.

[This message was edited by HowardR on 04 June 2006 at 05:19 AM.]

Jon Light (deceased) · Post by **Jon Light (deceased)** » 4 Jun 2006 4:51 am

4 mallets on vibraphone is pretty standard--Gary Burton, Bobby Hutcherson et. al. I'd be curious to know who is credited with making the leap to 4 and breaking into the harmonic complexity denied by 2.
Common practice, yes, but no less impressive. I've played (with) vibes before (I'm formerly a pianist) and had a blast but the idea of well-controlled technique with 2 clubs per hand is beyond me. Of course one can find aspects of most any instrument that seem beyond comprehension.

David L. Donald · Post by **David L. Donald** » 4 Jun 2006 4:57 am

4 Mallets is pretty normal.
What's impressive is the level of
single note 2 mallet lines,
without dropping the unused pair.

And I have done a ballad with a cat
playing 6 mallets,
THAT impressed me, no clams at all,
and HUGE voicings for a vibes.

Cody Campbell · Post by **Cody Campbell** » 4 Jun 2006 5:57 am

Hi, Eric.

Hey what did you mean by this? I honestly don't know.

with his obvious talent and intelligence I doubt that he'll hang out in the "music world" too long

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 4 Jun 2006 7:23 am

As a beginner on the instrument, I spend most of my time working through 4 mallet exercises. It's a real specific trick for the hand muscles, not unlike learning to block correctly on the steel guitar. My hands ache after a good marimba practice session, and that's actually a good thing.

There are competing "grips" in the marimba world. After a thorough investigation, I settled on a technique developed by Howard Leigh Stevens. In it, the mallets don't touch each other in the hand. Once mastered, this grip makes small intervals possible that are very difficult in traditional "cross stick" grips.

I'm really a horrible marimba player, but the instrument itself sounds so beautiful that I can get away with it. I hope to have several classical standards in my repertoire after a few years. I've been working on a short Bach sonata. Beautiful music!

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<img align=right src="http://b0b.com/b0b2005.gif" width="78 height="78">Bobby Lee (a.k.a. b0b) - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
Williams D-12 E9, C6add9, Sierra Olympic S-12 (F Diatonic)
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Charles Davidson · Post by **Charles Davidson** » 4 Jun 2006 8:17 am

Bob,Your right the Marimba is a beautiful instrument[sometimes I pick at you about the little do-dad you play with the little drum sticks,same as I pick at you about the banjo]But the Marimba is like a steel guitar,A bad steel player is better than NO steel player.I also love vibes,remember years ago seeing Hampton on TV all the time.One of my favorite albums of all time is an 18 year old Bary Burton with one of the greatest guitarist of all time Hank Garland,on Jazz Directions.

Eric West · Post by **Eric West** » 4 Jun 2006 8:33 am

Well it was really amazing watching his control and technique. Mainly the fact that he was still in his teens. He used circluar motion a lot and crossed the sets of mallets often, seemed to have a light loose grip, and then rose to a crescendo, working either end of a large machine, and having to almost take a full side step.

Cody. I'm sure you're joking... but if you don't know.. It's very tempting for young people with amazing talent to be lured into other careers where there is a lot of money. You don't see a lot of Tip Jars in Architecture Firms.

Anyhow to the miking, I think it was done with one mike, but I imagine a piano type contact transducer would be available for them.

Wish I had a link to the show on Utube or something, but it was a local cable access show.

Like the piano, I find fixed pitch intruments soothing.

EJL

HowardR · Post by **HowardR** » 4 Jun 2006 10:04 am

So how is percussion linked to the marimba (vibes)?

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 4 Jun 2006 11:12 am

Marimba is part of the "orchestral percussion" family of instruments. It's played my striking it with sticks (mallets), like the tympani or cymbals.

When I decided that I wanted to learn marimba, I went through a series of percussion instruments first: conga, bongos and the Handsonic electronic drum. I wanted to be sure I had the reflexes to strike a surface in time, repeatedly and predictably. It took a couple of years before I felt I was ready for a marimba.

Maybe it's like guitar and pedal steel. A background in guitar playing is almost a requirement for pedal steel. I know there are exceptions, but understanding bar chords on a guitar goes a long way towards understanding how a pedal steel works.

------------------
<img align=right src="http://b0b.com/b0b2005.gif" width="78 height="78">Bobby Lee (a.k.a. b0b) - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
Williams D-12 E9, C6add9, Sierra Olympic S-12 (F Diatonic)
Sierra Laptop S-8 (E6add9), Fender Stringmaster D-8 (E13, C6 or A6) My Blog [This message was edited by Bobby Lee on 04 June 2006 at 12:13 PM.]

Jon Light (deceased) · Post by **Jon Light (deceased)** » 4 Jun 2006 11:20 am

Many years ago a buddy and I were sharing a house and we were holding a friend's vibes in storage for a couple of months. He was a drummer. I was a pianist.
We both spent a bunch of time playing the thing. As per your guitar/steel analogy, it was fascinating to see what he, the drummer brought to this percussion instrument and what I, the pianist brought to this keyboard instrument. It was like two entirely different instruments in each of our hands. I would say that he had far better command of the physical technique but I had a melodic/harmonic thing that he couldn't touch.

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 5 Jun 2006 9:47 am

Yes, a drummer's education is often weak in the music theory area.

Coming from steel guitar with little keyboard experience is also a disadvantage. On steel guitar, we really only learn one key. Then we move it up and down the fretbard. Naturals and accidentals are treated equally. Most of us don't even know the name of the note we're playing, and for the most part it is irrelevant.

On a keyboard (or vibes/marimba), there's a world of difference between playing in C and playing in B. You can know a tune frontwards and backwards in C, and fall all over yourself trying to play it in another key. You have to practice each key signature individually because the positions are quite different in each key. This difference is exagerrated on marimba (compared to piano) by the size of the bars.

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<img align=right src="http://b0b.com/b0b2005.gif" width="78 height="78">Bobby Lee (a.k.a. b0b) - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
Williams D-12 E9, C6add9, Sierra Olympic S-12 (F Diatonic)
Sierra Laptop S-8 (E6add9), Fender Stringmaster D-8 (E13, C6 or A6) My Blog

Jon Light (deceased) · Post by **Jon Light (deceased)** » 5 Jun 2006 11:17 am

Get Ed Packard to design a capo for your marimba.

Cody Campbell · Post by **Cody Campbell** » 5 Jun 2006 11:21 am

Eric,

Thanks for explaining. I guess I really didn't fully see what you meant, until you explained it.

But it's obvious that you're right. There is definitely a good chance that the kid will pursue a more promising field of study.

But considering what he has already accomplished he could stick with music if he wants to and end up doing well at it.

Charles Davidson · Post by **Charles Davidson** » 5 Jun 2006 4:41 pm

Bob,Just get a capo for that thing,then you could play in every key with no problem,that's what J.W.said.

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 6 Jun 2006 4:16 pm

Better to capo the singer.