How to Play Four Mallet Marimba
How to Play Four Mallet Marimba
Learning to play the marimba is fun and rewarding, but once you’ve become proficient while using two mallets, the next step is learning to play with four mallets. Holding them and playing with them feels awkward at first, but after sufficient practice it will become like second nature.
Steps

Put the first mallet between your pointer finger and thumb. The end of the mallet should reach to the center of your palm. The mallet is kept in place by your palm, pointer finger and thumb.

Put the second mallet between your ring finger and your middle finger. The end of the mallet should reach to about the first line in your palm.

Repeat steps one and two for the third and fourth mallets, which go in your other hand.

Play the mallets that are between your thumb and pointer finger, you simply hold onto the mallet with those fingers and move it up and down. Try not to move your hand at all while doing this; only the mallet and the two fingers should move.

Playing the mallet between your ring finger and pinkie is slightly harder. To make the movement, imagine that you’re opening a doorknob. In fact, a good way to practice this movement is by turning a doorknob a couple of times and paying particular attention to the rotation that occurs. You want to duplicate this rotation. Your wrist should twist slightly away from you, bringing the top of the mallet downward. With practice, this movement will become minimal – you won’t have to move your wrist very much at all to make the mallet move downward. As you play you'll teach yourself how to roll just imagine a doorknob you can't open and your twisting and turning it.

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