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Each marimba I've tried in the last ten years is tuned this way. It's basically standard.

@@viktorhallin2084 alright thanks for confirming!

I know the sound quality is trash but what i tried to show is that you get a lot less of the fundamental and more of the tuned harmonics.

​@@viktorhallin2084ohh ok cool!

Well to tune a marimba bar you tune it at multiple points and since the bar is arched the frequencies you tune can't be the same so the standard is to tune the tonic, then two octaves and three octaves and a major third. Then you just have to dampen the parts of the bar where the tone you don't want is tuned. You can check LaFavres site for better explanations and illustrations.

ahh, nice. very impressive!@@viktorhallin2084

I know! That is what started my fascination with extended techniques!

this is a good reference

Well it's in Swedish so I doubt you'll have any interest in reading it unless of course you know Swedish! If you still want it I can send you a link.

I use hard vibraphone mallets, I used Elite mallets hardest mallets. It works with almost anything, I've succeeded with my knuckle, but don't use birch handle, I've snapped three mallets that way.

I'd say there are two reasons. 1, I get more control since my hands are closer to the bar, this probably due to a lack of practice, but for me I always considered it easier that way. 2, you only want to touch the corner part of the bar, so perhaps around 60-70 degrees would be feasible. When I've played pieces using these techniques I drag both ways as needed but I definitely think it's easier to start with your hands close to the bars.

Thank you very much for the kind words. I'd be happy to send you my master thesis however, I doubt that google translate will be able to translate it very well. As it stands it's written in swedish. I'm thinking of doing a translation of both my bachelors paper and my master paper. However, that will be somewhere down the line. I've gotten plenty of people who have asked for the papers so I guess I should. About the notation, I can only offer suggestions. I mean, using bow is pretty standard "arco" or perhaps "arco lh" if it's only used in the left hand. Using overtones, the composers I've worked with has different ways of nonating that. Do you want a swedish paper, otherwise we can discuss through mail. My mail is viktor.hallin23@gmail.com. I'd be happy to answer all questions that I might be able to answer.

I have never tried, but I guess that will work but to a lesser degree. Thicker bars makes the use of bow more difficult in the same way that it is more difficult in the higher registers the same goes for bending. In a lower register I think it would be very subtle on xylophone.

@@viktorhallin2084 Thanks for your reply. I'm going to try some different things with a percussionist today so I guess I'll get to hear for myself then! 😄

@@CarterMuller Good Luck! If you can be bothered I'd like to hear your thoughts on the results!

@@viktorhallin2084 Sure! I guess the main takeaway was that on the xylophone you're limited to the lower notes when bowing, and that the marimba, while it clearly works as you show in your videos, doesn't seem to offer the same dynamic control that the vibraphone does. So in the end I decided that while I'm not really looking for an 'angelic' effect like you would usually get out of a bowed vibraphone, it's still most suitable for the piece I've just started working on, which requires percussion to mix with long, sustained sounds from a string quartet.

@@CarterMuller Thank you for the input! I do agree that there is a lack in dynamic range, however, there are some things you can do to widen the range. For low volume, you can start with a rather acute angle with the bow, say about 30 degrees, and you can create what I would consider a pp, but if you want ff you are gonna be in for some problems. I'd say forte is max. It's also very dependent on what type of hartz you use. I use double bass hartz, which makes lower volume more difficult but much easier to get the sound going.

I used a very hard vibraphone mallet for this, rattan shafts a preferred as you apply a lot of force. It's easier with xylophone mallets but they leave marks on the bars so I do not recommend it. You can actually only bend downwards as far as I know, however if you start the tone bended you can unbend it. The fundamental nodes on the marimba (where the strings passes) has barely any vibration so you can start to apply force there. The key is to make the mallet resonate with the bar. More mass, lower tone. You can use three mallets in one hand to lower the tone, I think I reached a B flat or A form the lowest C. To make the tone bend you just drag it towards the center, the closer you get the lower the tone. You can watch tutorials how you bend on vibraphone, it's same thing. The only difference is that a marimba has a short sound so you will have lengthen it, I used a bow but I bet there are more ways.

Is it a kind of superball?

@@Carlos-ro6jo no, I've tried those but the shafts are usually to brittle. These just vibraphone mallets, very hard thou.

@@viktorhallin2084 Thank you so much!

You can do this with whatever mallet you like as long as it is a birch handle. I haven't tried with rattan but it might work as well. The general idea is that you more or less balance the mallet in your hand while dragging it across the bar. I used Miguel Bernat signature mallets from elitemallets.

@@viktorhallin2084 Thanks for instant reply! :) I can't wait to try this. It sounds like a beast. I saw your channel and admired all of your sound researches!

@@SaimGulay thank you for the kind words!

Viktor Hallin is your thesis accessible online?

@@SaimGulay yes it is, however as Swedish is my native language I've written it in Swedish. I sincerely doubt Google translate would do a good job translating it but if you wish I could give you the link

For the most part I'd say yes, the over tones is more noteable in the lower register of a five octave marimba and as far as I know the 3.3 octave marimbas is usually in the mid to top register. You can probably find the over tones if you play around with it but I don't think that they will be clear enough to used in concerts.

It was a 3.5 marimba C3 to F6 but has two broken keys now. But the broken keys are D# and I don't learn songs with this note yet. So with your technique it will work. I can play the D# on a keyboard or piano also.

@@4marimbas968 Ok, is there any of the techniques in specific you're asking about or just in genereal?

I really wonder to learn playing with the bow with my left hand in the low keys while playing with a mallet in the middle and high keys. Could you please help me with that ?

@@4marimbas968 Sure! So what I used was a double bass bow that I bought for cheap, with a sticky harts that grips good. You can expereiment a bit with that. Beyond that you can just try and practice. One pointer thou, if the bar wobbles when you pull the bow upwards then try to angle the bow towards the center bar.

Thank you very much!

The thing is that I wrote the thesis in my native language which is swedish. If you still want it you can send me an email and I'll send you links to them. In my bachelor I tried to find the techniques that I use in the master thesis, the master thesis is based on using the techniques in a colaboration with composers.

Thank you! As far as I know it is usually just the wanted note value with a ligature above, or at least, I prefer it that way. It's easier in the lower range, I'd say that the lowest 3,5 ocatves are no problem but when you go higher it gets trickier, since you need some pretty tough hartz on the bow it tends to lift the bar in the higher ranges which makes it wobble which leads to the tone sound like a tremolo on violin. There are work arounds, you can use different angles with the bow but that makes the tone less potent. I think I have a video up on my channel where I shortly demonstrate the ranges. Thank you for your questions!

@@viktorhallin2084 thank you for your answers, Viktor

Thank you for the kind words! Sure, I'll do my best. Have you ever been on the lafavre site? I learnt alot about this from that site. Basically the marimba has more than one note tuned in each bar, it has the fundamental which is placed in the middle, a double octave a few cm from the middle on both sides and a major third three octaves above the fundamental, this one tuned even further out and in the middle. By knowing this you can manipulate what you allow to vibrate. So in this example with the double ocatve I try to first show the fundamental and then by adding a finger (or a mallet, most things work) in the middle I can "block" the fundamental which makes the octave feel like a fundamental. I haven't been able to get this to work with the major third and bow but I'd say it's rather easy to get the third with mallets. All you have to do is place two mallets on the bar, each mallet aproximately between the middle of the bar and where the string passes and then strike the middle. It is a bit out of tune (they tend to tune the octaves differently for a reason I never understood), which can make for some cool sounds! Hope this cleared it up a bit and if you have any more questions I'd be happy to answer them, or at least try. I also want to apologize for my spelling, english is not my natvie tounge and since I'm in a bit of a hurry I don't have time to spell check.

Thank you Viktor, it's very clear now (there's always something to learn). It's very interesting, and of corse it would take a while to develop a fast technique for rapid results, as in a composition. But it's encouraging. I've found the lafavre website also, and I'll get deep into that soon, looks like there're lots of information there. That will probably gest to the physic of wood/bar/construction which is also most definitely fundamental. Thank you again, and sure I'll follow your next videos if you'll post new materials. Thanks again! Best

You're welcome! There is probably going to be a while if ever I post another marimba video, some things didn't work out right so I'm not playing much anymore. I hope I will in the future, but I guess time will tell.

Yeah, I actually stole this technique from the vibes!

Morning Dove Sonnet by Christopher Deane uses this extensively

Hi! I just sent you an email, or at least hopefully, the first @ is not suposed to be there in the mail adress right? As I also explain in the mail everything in the documents is in swedish which might be a problem, you got the links in the mail so you'll decide what you do with it.

Glad you liked it! I'll send it too you on sunday, I'm reaaaally busy this week so I don't think I'll have time before that.

hey...i am just reminding you if can send me the score when you have the time. Thank you in advance. marko.mihajlovic50@gmail.com ...thanks :)

Oh! Shit! I thought I had already sent it! I have sent it now! Sorry for the delay!

Consider it done!

+Christian López I'm sorry my Spanish is a little rusty, can you please type in English?

+Viktor Hallin well I try, my English is bad haha , I love music, and heard many times and now I wonder if there possibility that the music passes me please :)

+Christian López Sure! Just give me your email and I'll send it to you!

+Viktor Hallin ooohh really? tanksss! here my email chris_harclerode@hotmail.com

+Christian López Then I'll send it as soon as I get home. Probably in four hours or so!

+JustCallMeLizGirl Wow! Thank you for the kind words! Well, I'll give you the cheat music if you give me your email, so that is an esay way! If you would like to play something else with marimba I'd suggest playing something like Nagoya Marimba by Reich which I think would be nice. I'd also like to recommend you to do the same thing I did. I just took some music I considered beautiful and then wrote my own arrangement for the instruments.

+Viktor Hallin Thanks for the quick reply and good information ^^ I will definitely check out what you suggested. Here is my e-mail: foofieloopie@gmail.com It's very kind of you to send me the sheet music. Thanks again and keep up the good work!

+Jan Pavel Černý Hi! I just got around to checking my youtube channel, have I sent you the music yet?