Mallets From Heaven – Marimba, Xylophone, & more

There’s something striking about instruments played with mallets. Oh good; you got the pun.

MarXylo suite

My new suite is named MarXylo. That’s pronounced MAHRlow (“Marlow” with a silent “Xy”). I used mallet-played instruments to create all of the sounds on these pieces.

Some of these sounds will be very familiar. Vibraphone, marimba, xylophone, and even yangqin played with mallets. But most of them I’ve messed with enough that they are not immediately recognizable.

Mallets Galore

Xylophone and marimba are especially featured on the first track which carries the name of the suite, “MarXylo”. This was the first of these tracks that I composed and it may very well be the best of the three.

One instrument that inspired this piece of music was the recently released “Xylophone” by SonicCouture. As usual for this company, the attention to detail and the ability to tweak are top-notch. You’ll hear what I mean.

And Then There’s More

The other two pieces in this suite have even more tweaking of the original malleted sounds. “Mushy Mallets” is the second track and even its title hints at the crunchy mush I’ve made of some of these sounds. The sustained sounds like the one that opens this piece took more time to stretch the sound that to write the track. You can also hear the lo-fi sound of the yangqin and pristine vibes that lend a jazzy influence to the music.

The last of the three tracks is “Dreamy Vibes”. When the xylophone comes in this time, it almost has the character of a music box. There are plenty of other mallets in use to make this track an airy, dreamy wonderland of tuned wood and metal. Enjoy…

The main blog post image is by Juan David Muñoz and obtained via pexels.