Marimba!
Why Mallet Percussion?
The marimba is an instrument originally from Africa. It was introduced to Central America in the sixteenth century. Within the last century, Americans have really started to take advantage and explore the capabilities of this unique instrument. As a percussion major here at B-W, I have been taught how to play the marimba throughout my last two years of study. I have been taught to hit the bars in a certain place and in a certain way to produce the best quality of sound. Needless to say, I was interested to examine the acoustical aspects and/or goals of these techniques I have been taught.
History concerning the marimba is somewhat limited. The xylophone tends to be a much more commonly studied tonal percussion instrument. However, there is some very valuable information that I found prior to my experiment. I learned that marimba bars vibrate in very complex patterns and these patterns determine the frequencies present. A marimba bar can be tuned to one mode or several different modes. The different modes show the different ways that the bar can/will vibrate depending on where and how it is hit. A marimba bar also has a big section cut from the bottom side of the bar. This is to help the bar vibrate and also for tuning purposes. If you want to make the pitch lower, take some wood off of the middle of the bar. If you want to make the pitch higher, take some wood off of the ends of the bar. The research concerning the marimba and its acoustical aspects is very complex but helped me better understand what I was getting myself into.