Hello and welcome to week twelve of learning four mallets. This week I have finished learning the piece "Root" by Matt Albano, it demonstrates the skills I have learned for the past ten weeks from permutations, intervals, single independent, single alternating, double vertical, and double laterals. This piece was definitely a challenge in getting note and rhythm accuracy and changing the intervals at the right time. I have worked my way up to the real tempo and added the dynamics to make this piece expressive and interesting. Eventually with hours of practice and work I was able to finish preparing this piece and play through it.
This week has prepared me for my audition this summer at Appalachian Summer Music Camp. This has further my skills as a percussionist and worked on my coordination, skills as a musician, muscle memory, and my ability to multitask. It was definitely a challenge, but I was able to master this skill over time with practice. I will continue to build this skill and learn new pieces overtime. This project was a great way to push me to master this skill and better myself as a musician.
0 Comments
Welcome to week eleven of learning four mallets. This week I began learning my final song. This song will demonstrate the skills I have learned for the past ten weeks from permutations, intervals, single independent, single alternating, double vertical, and double laterals. This piece titled "Root" by Matt Albano is very challenging, it is in the key of E flat major and is at a moderate tempo of about 90-96.
At first I sat down and listened to the piece while annotating the most important things as well as the things that seemed most challenging. I also annotated the things that I should pay the most attention to, things that seemed more challenging. I will then play the piece at a slow tempo first, striving for rhythmic accuracy, then work my way up to the written tempo range of the piece. The hardest part is maintaining strong intervals to keep note accuracy, so I have to make sure to do my intervals changes during the rebound. Using a mixture of mallet heights and velocity will maximize my range of expression of this piece. I will continue to practice this song and work up to the real tempo, I will add dynamics all while focusing on note accuracy and good technique. Next week I will fully perform and video the piece and post it. This song will take a lot of work and practice to be able to perform it completely. Hello and welcome to week ten of learning four mallets. This week I took the exercise named "The Grid" (played in week seven) and played it in reverse learning four new permutations. Again a mallet permutation simply refers to the order in which a keyboard percussionist plays his or her mallets in a given passage. This is similar to the drummer’s stickings and the pianist’s fingerings. We use a numbering system in four mallet keyboard percussion music depending on the mallet, 1-2-3-4, left to right respectively. When a permutation is played at a faster tempo the permutation when played creates a rolled effect. Though making sure you are still using correct technique and keeping the single independent style.
The exercise "The Grid" works the permutation 1-2-3-4, 2-3-4-1, 3-4-1-2, 4-1-2-3. This week I took this exercise and reversed the variations playing, 4-3-2-1, 3-2-1-4, 2-1-4-3, 1-4-3-2. This was especially difficult after getting used to the basic 1-2-3-4 permutations and even more difficult that my muscle memory is used to the left to right motion. Though after 12 hours of practice this week I was able to adapt to the right to left motion and going backwards. Another difficulty I faced was the transitions between each set of permutations. My hands haven't memorized which order to play in nor the movement of going down and not up. After practicing playing this exercise slow for a while my hands began to feel where they were supposed to be placed. Learning both left to right, and right to left permutations will help when I start to prepare "Root". Root is based off the permutation 1-2-4-3 due to it's recurrence through the piece. This will be difficult because my left hand will be going up then my right hand follows going down. Next week I will begin working on my final piece. I will first approach the song by listening to it and annotating my music. I will then try out the easier things and eventually work out the harder things. By the end of the week I'd like to play through the song fully then leave the final week to clean it up, add dynamics, and perform it. Hello and welcome to week nine of learning four mallets. This week I learned an exercise named Laterals. This exercise is based off a perfect fifth, which is five notes up in a major scale from the root. Mallet one will start on a C, mallet two on the G, mallets three and four on the same just an octave up. Then in eighth notes I'd play the basic permutation 1-2-3-4 on the C-G-C-G. Then cut them in half and play sixteenth notes playing the permutation faster. After I play that in the key of C, I will go up chromatically to D flat and A flat. Playing Dflat-Aflat-Dflat-Aflat. Then continuing up. This exercise is challenging, but builds up your single independent and control of each mallet. When first working on this I had to start pretty slow to make each sixteenth note consistent. It's difficult because you can be hesitant when moving from each mallet. To solve this I took it slow making sure I knew when each mallet was supposed to play so my muscles could remember and I could play permutations without thinking to go faster. It's even harder going backwards in the 4-3-2-1, 3-2-1-4, etc. pattern. I hope to eventually become comfortable with my basic permutation and learn the other 20 of them. I have linked a document that has all 24 permutations at the bottom. This week I practiced 14 hours learning this exercise and making it precise all while keeping my good technique. Next week I will be learning the exercise from week seven just in a new variation. I will be playing it backwards to learn four new permutations. ![]()
Hello and welcome to week eight with learning four mallets. This week I worked on playing chords. A chord is a combination of three or more notes, and are built off of a single note, called the root. I played the bottom root with mallet one, then a major third with mallet two. A third is when there are three measures of distance between notes, and thirds will always share a staff position type-either both on a space, or on a line. A perfect fifth with mallet three. A fifth is when there are five measures of distance between notes, and fifths will always share a staff position as well. So for example, C would be the root, E would be the major third, and G would make the perfect fifth. This is called a major triad. I then add the top root with mallet four, being octave C, creating a four note chord. The exercise I learned takes this four note chord and moves each note up a half step. So you go from C-E-G-C, to C# also known as Db-F-Ab-Db, and continue till you get back to the C major chord.
Hello and welcome to week seven of learning four mallets. This week I worked on an exercise titled "The Grid". It works with single independent technique with four mallets, meaning separating each of the four mallets and getting a single note with one instead of intervals or a full chord. The exercise works with a concept called permutations. There are 24 variations of them, but I worked on the basic four.
A mallet permutation simply refers to the order in which a keyboard percussionist plays his or her mallets in a given passage. This is similar to the drummer’s stickings and the pianist’s fingerings. Thus we use a numbering system in four mallet keyboard percussion music depending on the mallet, 1-2-3-4, left to right respectively. When a permutation is played at a faster tempo the permutation when played creates a rolled effect. Though you have to make sure you are still using correct technique and keeping the single independent style. The exercise "The Grid" works the permutation 1-2-3-4, 2-3-4-1, 3-4-1-2, 4-1-2-3. You would begin playing the first one and repeat it four times then move to the second variation in tempo without a pause, and repeat with the next two. Though switching to a new permutation you make sure to skip a mallet meaning going 1-2-3-4 then skipping mallet 1 and starting the second permutation beginning with the second mallet to play 2-3-4-1. This exercise was a challenge especially getting consistency with all four mallets as well as making each note even and in tempo. I practiced this skill this week for 12 hours, and getting more in depth with the skills of four mallets I plan to get more time in so I can learn this skill fully in the next 6 weeks. Next week I will begin working on chords and moving from a four note chord to another chord moving all four mallets at the same time. This will especially be a challenge, but I hope to get more practice in to make each note, interval, and chord precise. Hello and welcome to week six of learning four mallets. This week I was able to play through my first four mallet piece. It was very challenging, but I started with this easier piece to build up to the final piece. The marimba mallets I have been using are the A. Putnam Goodenberger G-line mix, I am playing with a soprano as my top mallet, altos as my middle two, and a tenor as my bottom mallet. This gave me a wide range of articulation and style in this piece. Though they are on the bit of the heavy side, so for my next piece i might use some different light weight mallets.
I practiced 16 hours this week, and finally made it through my first piece. Last week I mainly worked on getting the feel of the piece, as well as correct notes while keeping correct technique. This week I made it through the whole song, then went back and cleaned up some of the rough parts. After I felt the song was clean I decided it needed more. So to make the piece interesting I added my own dynamics. I added crescendos which means to increase in the volume and intensity, decrescendos which decreased the volume, ritardandos which is a decrease in tempo, and other dynamics to make the piece more passionate and interesting. The song means ¨dreams¨ in Spanish, so as I was playing this piece I was attempting to mock that of a dream, so the addition of dynamics allowed my to add to the dreamlike feel. Next week I plan on learning the concept of permutations. This is a new skill I will discuss next week. I plan to get more practice time in as I increase with the difficulty of learning four mallets. Hello and welcome to week five of learning four mallets. This week I started working on my first song. The song is titled ¨Sueños¨ meaning dreams, from Impressions on Wood by Julie Davila. Sueños is an easier marimba piece set in the key of G minor. The piece is slow, but has helped me get used to the playing of four mallets. I have practiced 15-16 hours this week, Though it is still very difficult because this is my first song so it is reasonable to have trouble.
I started out listening to the song. I had to get the feel of the piece before I could dive into it. I then annotated my music, I annotated dynamics, where I could stretch the tempo, key things I needed to pay more attention to, and harder things that I needed to spend more time on. Then I started learning the bass clef part which I mainly use my left hand for. This helped build the basis of the song so I could add the melody with my right hand. After I got my left hand I worked with the easier part of the piece. Then when I got more comfortable I started learning the piece measure by measure, making sure I kept the correct technique and played each note correctly. This is a really fun piece to play, and I am continuing to work on my fundamentals. I feel my hands becoming more comfortable with the weight and the technique of four mallets. Next week I am going to continue to work in this piece going deeper into the song. I will clean up the hard places and then eventually add my own dynamics to make the piece sound interesting. I plan to upload a video of the final piece. Hello and welcome to week four of learning four mallets. This week I put together my right and left hand. I used the same exercise called double verticals, where I would go from a 5th, to a 4th, to a 3rd, to a 2nd, then back up going in 8-4-2-1. This week was very challenging because this was the first time really putting both hands together. I soon realized that muscle memory has to play a big part in this due to me not being able to look at both hands while playing. It was quite hard going into my closer intervals. I had to make sure the interval was precise and that I kept my good technique. As I began to go faster it became especially difficult. But this has built up muscles in my hands for holding the mallets as well as worked on my muscle memory. I practiced this around 12 hours this week to make sure I got the exercise.
Hello and welcome to week three of learning four mallets. This week I worked on learning double verticals in my left hand. Again this is going from a 5th, to a 4th, to a 3rd, and then to a 2nd then finally back up. I had to spend more time on perfecting technique and working on this skill this week due to my right hand dominance. Though like last week I had trouble with speeding this exercise up, as well as getting my close intervals precise. As I'm getting further into this skill I'm learning mallet control and my hands are getting used to the weight and technique of these mallets. Overall, this week I practiced mallets 10-12 hours. I had to be flexible with Jimeson's schedule, so I would have enough time to stay after and practice the marimba. I plan to spend more time practicing as things get more in depth, and I'm trying to find ways to practice at home, such as sitting on the floor with old mallets and build up my muscles in my hands by hitting the floor with mallets. This would then allow my hands to get more experience with this new skill and get used to the weight of holding two mallets. Next week I plan on combining both my right hand and my left hand to perform the same exercise but together. This will be challenging because I'll be working with all four mallets for the first time. I'll need to put in more practice time this week to accomplish this goal. |