separation anxiety
I recently saw a marimba player perform a Bach fuge that I've been working on. This person is a really great percussionist and I was anxious to watch him play.
He really struggled through the piece and one thing caught my eye about his approach.
He really had mad a huge attempt to play lines with one mallet even when not necessary. I didn't really understand that at all and still don't.
It goes back to the pianistic thing I always hear about the instrument. I don't understand that either. It's not a piano, not even close and the approach shouldn't be pianistic. Sure we're trying to accomplish the same things, however a pianists hands and technique are designed to be separated. Ours are not. Our technique involves, borrowing, stealing but not total separation. Maybe someone will come along and prove me wrong, but our hands work together when we play.
So no matter what grip you use why would you play a single fast line with one mallet. I figure it like this. maybe 2 or 3 notes while you're getting something accomplished with the other hand but then it must come up and 'help' out.
I still say this instrument is more like a guitar than a piano. We do the same tricks to play chords and melodies and pull it all together.
What does anyone else think? I post this not to say I'm right, but to give my opinion and see if anyone else agrees or disagrees.
I think we can develop separation anxiety because we try so hard for 'independence' on the vibes, where the answer to our problems lie in co-dependency.
what do you think?
He really struggled through the piece and one thing caught my eye about his approach.
He really had mad a huge attempt to play lines with one mallet even when not necessary. I didn't really understand that at all and still don't.
It goes back to the pianistic thing I always hear about the instrument. I don't understand that either. It's not a piano, not even close and the approach shouldn't be pianistic. Sure we're trying to accomplish the same things, however a pianists hands and technique are designed to be separated. Ours are not. Our technique involves, borrowing, stealing but not total separation. Maybe someone will come along and prove me wrong, but our hands work together when we play.
So no matter what grip you use why would you play a single fast line with one mallet. I figure it like this. maybe 2 or 3 notes while you're getting something accomplished with the other hand but then it must come up and 'help' out.
I still say this instrument is more like a guitar than a piano. We do the same tricks to play chords and melodies and pull it all together.
What does anyone else think? I post this not to say I'm right, but to give my opinion and see if anyone else agrees or disagrees.
I think we can develop separation anxiety because we try so hard for 'independence' on the vibes, where the answer to our problems lie in co-dependency.
what do you think?
posted by Tony at
12:03 PM
2 Comments:
I agree with your observations for the most part. However I studied marimba with a teacher who was a student of Stevens'and I seem to remember back then that they were experimenting with mis-matched mallets so that the "bass" notes would be played by a softer mallet and the inner lines with a different hardness and so on. It was many years ago but I seem to remember some mallet suggestions in the performance notes for one the pieces in the album for the young...can't be sure though. Anyway my point is that if he were not playing with four matched mallets it might not be practical for the "tenor" mallet to help out the "soprano" mallet. Not making excuses just offering a reason some might struggle to play a line with one mallet. After playing with the stevens grip for twenty five years, I have begun to switch to the burton grip on vibes. I have discovered that many of things I thought could not be done with the Burton grip are quite possible. I feel the same one-mallet-around -the-other rotation though not in the same way. Some of things I can do with the Stevens grip such different types of rolls and different 4 mallet stickings for scales, I have no need to do on vibes. But the main thing about the Burton grip I think lies in the articulation of a line on the vibes. the greater ease in choking notes and mallet dampening and the "borrowing and stealing" while keeping the melody in the "upper" mallet. I do it with the Stevens grip but the dampening and choking of notes is more difficult with outside mallet. So while the Stevens grip allows for the marimbist to articulate as a marimbist, the Burton grip does the same for the vibes. I think maybe one should use or at least try to use both depending on the demands of the piece and the instrument being played. Just my opinion
By
Anonymous, at 10:51 PM
I think Malcolm might be right about you overlooking marimba player's choice of sticking when it comes down to keeping a uniform sound. Sometimes they use the whole range of the instrument and in order to keep a rich, yet clear sound throughout, they choose to use one specific mallet within a certain range.
But, seen as we are on the marimba subject, let me bring up another issue, which I think is even more important. I find it strange that on the one hand marimba players care so much about how certain mallets will provide a clearer sound and on the other hand, whenever I hear accomplished marimbists playing incredibly challenging transcriptions like, for instance, a Chopin Prelude, they don't seem to care about the clarity of the sound; particularly when playing chromatic passages in the lower register, where the sound sustains for much longer . We all know that without dampening, a scale-like line played in the lower range of the marimba sounds muddy and unrecognizable. Surely they must realize that as well.
I think that if people heard a pianist do the same they would probably start throwing tomatos, but marimba players get away with it for some reason.
Going back to the pianistic approach, I think that playing chords with one hand and lines with another is only one of the many techniques available to pianists. We tend to think of the piano that way, but in fact, pianists also have the ability to play three or four lines at the same time, for instance, and that's when they borrow fingers from one hand or another. At that point, the independence takes place in the brain rather than the in hands or the fingers.
To me it makes more sense to think of the vibraphone as a keyboard, after all that's what it is no matter how many mallets you use.
We know that some pianists think orchestrally. That doesn't mean they are an orchestra, but thinking in those terms helps them achieve a certain sound. In such instances, pianists find ways to emulate an orchestra, borrowing from whatever they can. In the meantime it's all in the brain or wherever imagination comes from.
So my guess is that if you have more knowledge or affinity with the guitar you might be able to think guitar-like when you are playing the vibraphone, or at least imagine it. Now, what do guitar players think of when they work toward achieving independence?
By
Anonymous, at 11:12 AM
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