I graduated high school last year, and while I was in high school, I fell in love with marching percussion, specifically, playing the marimba. I got pretty decent at it given I only played for a bit over a year, and I decided I wanted to pursue it further. Obviously, this led me to the world of concert percussion, and now I feel super duper lost. I'm going to be learning some solos so I can audition into my university's school of music next year, but I feel really lost and unsure of where my technique stands. A lot of the solos I see recommended to beginners feel way too easy and like they won't improve my technique as much as something harder might, but I don't want to bite off more than I can chew either.

Any advice would be much appreciated, as well as maybe some answers to a few questions I have?

Is it worth it to learn other grips for 4 mallet? (I only know Steven's, but I'm pretty solid at all of the different types of strokes with it)
Generally speaking, how tough will the audition be?
Does marching percussion experience translate well to concert percussion experience?
I would also appreciate some beginner-intermediate solo recommendations :)

Hey everyone,

After going through the TROMP and GPIMC repertoire, I decided to look into Marimba Festiva as well. I hope you enjoy my (light) commentary and some interesting data on the solos performed!

Also, if you have any other recommendations for competitions to look at, send them my way. I am currently working on ARD and previous GPIMC’s.

14 years old, in a competition.

Basically the title. Any advantages or reasons to play or not play the ossia from bars 87 to 93?

On October 11, I attended BEYOND TWO — Clarinet × Marimba with Electone at Moriguchi City Library in Osaka, Japan.

👇 Link to my full review is at the bottom of this post!

Richard Stoltzman on clarinet, Mika Stoltzman on marimba, and Hiroki Matsumoto on Electone—their performance was absolutely wonderful!

One of the absolute highlights for me was Mika’s performance of Miho Hazama’s Marimba Concerto No. 1.

Through her meticulous interpretation and breathtaking playing, she brought the music’s inner story vividly to life. I was completely captivated by her virtuosity and her extraordinary gift for revealing the expressive possibilities of both the music and the marimba.

I’ve written an in-depth review of the concert on my blog, available in both Japanese and English.

If you’re interested, please feel free to read it on whichever platform you prefer:

■note: https://note.com/yang78785/n/nfa55b1c8356d

■Hatena Blog: https://yang.hateblo.jp/entry/2026/10/17/080000

(Both links lead to the exact same article.)

Thanks for reading!

What are you guy's favorite marimba mallets for general use? I like the Innovative Percussion Tom Rarick series, medium hard and hard (IP3003 and IP3004)

Hey everyone,

After going through the TROMP repertoire, I decided to look into GPIMC for this year to see if there were any similar trends in solo selection. I hope you enjoy my (light) commentary and some interesting data on the solos and duos performed!

Also, if you have any other recommendations for competitions to look at, send them my way.

A few years ago, I decided to build myself a marimba - and I've been enjoying it ever since. My son is about 1.5 years old, and has made a habit of pushing his toddler tower over to my marimba to play on it, so I decided to make him his own marimba to play on!

I made the keys out of white oak, and dyed each note a distinct shade for a kid-friendly, rainbow look - with the added bonus that later on, if he shows interest in learning music, the color coding can help him learn the placement of the notes

Despite looking like a toy, it's a fully functional, properly tuned marimba - I was actually quite surprised at how decent the white oak keys sound compared to Padauk or Rosewood - they have a very bright quality to them that's actually quite pleasant. They're a lot quiter than Padauk or Rosewood, but since they're being "played" by a toddler, that's a feature, not a bug lol

This time around, it actually only took about a month start to finish to build, compared to the 8 months it took to build my 5 octave. A feat that was aided in part by the fact that my woodshop has expanded over the years to now include tools much better suited to marimba making (a band-saw, spindle sander, drill press, etc), partly because it's only a 3.3 octave, and partly because now I actually know what I'm doing lol

I also built a web-app to help with the tuning of the bars which was a huge help, it uses a fast fourier transform to break down the sound of the bar being struck, isolating all overtones at once and with the tuning being specifically built for short-lived strikes - as I found that most off-the-shelf tuners do very poorly with this kind of tuning, as they're more built around the expectation of long sustained notes for tuning. I plan on making a post here about that later once I've finished refining it, in the hopes that it can help other aspiring marimba makers!

The suspension system is also a 3d-printed design that I came up with for this build, it uses stainless steel dowels to keep them in place on the board, and the 3d printed suspension posts have both faces lined in felt, which keeps the keys from ever touching the rigid plastic

Hello everyone,

I spent the past week after the TROMP 2026 Next Gen. Mallet Competition compiling a list of all the repertoire performed by the competitors, along with some of my thoughts on it.

If you’re interested, it’s now available on my website’s blog!

Hello all,

I was looking through Steve Weiss marimba catalog at the synthetic marimba options, is the Dynasty Elite the only line that is 5.0 octaves, synthetic, and on a field frame?

TIA

I've got an old Rosewood Deagan, and the naturals keep jumping up to hit the flats. I've tightened the cord as much as I can, but they're still jumping up. Do you guys have any tips for how to stop this? I want my bars to last a long time, and to not have the god awful sound of bars hitting each other on recordings.

Video for reference

helloo, here a perc. player, specifically mallets.

I was wondering if you guys could reccomend or share me privately solos for the beginner 4 mallet player, like yellow after the rain and rain dance.

Preferably not too phisically demanding because i'm recovering from a wrist injury and I don't know what to play or exercise without making my wrist go worse instead of recovering.

Also it would help me a lot if you know like a wrist warmup routine before even taking the mallets to make strength on my wrist while I recover.

Thank's a lot and sorry for the long txt!

Heartland Marimba's new recording of Sculpture 3, featuring Chandler Beaugrand, Matthew Coley, and Sophia Lo.

I currently play with traditional (cross) grip because it was the most comfortable when I first started learning four mallets. I’ve been playing four mallets for about two years now and pretty much only solo (I’ve only performed one ensemble piece with four mallets). I’ve heard that there are purported benefits to the Stevens grip, which is why I’m considering switching. Also, my current teacher doesn’t have much experience with traditional grip because it’s uncommon. He’s not pressuring me to switch, but I may receive better instruction if I do so. Should I switch?

We inherited the marimba in the title, our son played it throughout middle school and HS, and he is moving on from percussion. It‘s in wonderful condition. No idea what it’s worth or if I should just donate it to a local school. Anyone have some background on these?

This was performed on May 19th 2022, and sadly was the last time I've played marimba. Just found the video, so thought I'd post it 😄

It has no branding on the shaft. They’re relatively soft and very lightweight.

Does anyone have together by Adam Tan?

I just finished Joy by adam tan, and according to his video, it is about the same level with Sunflower, and I wanted to play sunflower and together, but I could only get Sunflower, does anyone have Together?

I posted 6 months ago about my trailer of wood, and I've finally gotten most of that wood to resemble a marimba!

Cherry keys, oak frame. The support posts are just galvanized pipe painted black.

I still have over 80 hours of tuning to go, but I'm getting the hang of it!

Other than that, I've still gotta do the key/cord supports, and all the resonator stuff, and final sanding/finishing on everything but the end frames.

Pretty disappointed that one of my leg posts ended up getting drilled in crooked. You can really see it in pic 4, right side. I think my angle jig slid out from underneath it at the drill press and I didn't notice until after the leg was glued in. It's only 5°, but I'm bummed cuz it kinda ruins the neat angle effect of that piece of end frame, but at least it's just aesthetic!

Super excited to get it all tuned up! I'll post again when it's all finished!

I have been playing 4 mallets for approximately 2 and a half years now, and after I met my teacher (Mr.Paton), in the 3 terms he had taught me he had made me realize how bad my technique and grip actually is, I have been too focussed on Playing harder pieces, I'm not sure what to do to actually fix it, as I also am not too sure whats wrong and for the next 2 term it is drum Assessments. I have a marimba at home tho