Vibraphone Technique: Dampening and Pedaling

Vibraphone Technique: Dampening and Pedaling

Although there is an abundance of study books for the mallet instruments, there is a conspicuous lack of material dealing with the phrasing and a general musical approach to four mallet playing. This is especially true for the vibraphone, as this instrument, of all mallet instruments, possesses the greatest potential for realizing interesting and exciting textural and phrasing possibilities. It is with these possibilities that this book will primarily deal. Unlike most mallet study books, this one contains no exercises or studies based on rigid scale patterns, except as introductory material. The reason for this is two fold. First of all, scale patterns are generally not of a musical nature and as a result are generally dull and tedious. If the exercise offers, aside from the technical challenge, no musical challenge, it has done only half the job and more than half the damage. Exercises should not be approached mechanically; they should be approached with the same joy and sense of musical challenge as a piece of music, which is exactly what a good exercise is; a good piece of music. Secondly, it is very important for the improvising musician to keep in mind that the more scale patterns, or any patterns for that matter, that he practices, the more rigid and "patterned" his improvisations will be. If a student must practice scales, he should practice the notes of the scale in a random order.

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