Floor-Mallet Marimba

Practicing 4-Mallet marimba on the floor or other “non-instrument” surface is something many professionals recommend to their students.  The concept appears in books and articles as well as clinics and handouts by Mark Ford, Gifford Howarth, Jeff Moore, and others.  Beetle Percussion even recently released a marimba “Practice pad” designed by Matthew Coley, which adds a more realistic dimension to this concept.

I recently began developing some of my exercises and expanding my use of floor practice for marimba.  I’m organizing my new materials under the heading “Floor-Mallet Marimba”.  My influences are mostly those of the artists above, and also of Kevin Bobo, his Book, and many years of teaching Stick Control.

It is generally understood that this approach does not develop a sensitive musical ear. The goal is improving mechanical facility, strength, and control of the sticks.  It’s also great at times when an instrument is difficult to obtain and chops need to be maintained.One final note:  There are fundamentally 3 ways stickings can combine with 4-mallets

1. Mirrored Patterns: Inside/Outside combinations
2. Parallel Patterns: Left side/Right side combinations
3. Oblique Patterns: when two or more elements are present, one element can be Mirrored and the other Parallel.  Example: Paradiddles can be Mirrored on the doubles and Parallel on the singles (3144 1311, etc.)

There’s a lot of math and permutation ahead, but the benefits of these exercises can be completely realized in even the most basic versions.  What I have printed here is a tiny fraction of the possible variations.

Floor-Mallet Rudimental Roll Builders

My work sheet “Rudimental Roll Builders” is designed to develop single- and double-stroke rolls.  Here it is modified for Floor-Mallet practice.  The beginning focuses on the Single Independent and Double Vertical strokes, and then adds the Double Lateral stroke in the place of “Diddles”.  The tempos are adjusted for the sticks and feel of the floor.  The complete range of tempo is intended to be covered in each practice session, and where the tempo of two exercises overlap, exercises may be played back to back with out stopping (Ex: 16th Single-Double and 16th Alternate-Double from 90-100)

Lateral permutations come from both the 4 stick motions (I/O Mirrored or L/R Parallel) and the starting stick of each pattern (1234) for a total of 16, shown below.

16th Double:Laterals and Rolls has an enormous number of possible permutations.  Rather than writing them out, there are two things to manipulate.

1. The first measure singles can be played 4 ways (I/O Mirrored or L/R Parallel)
2. Each “diddle” can be played either Inside or Outside on each hand.

These two elements account for the different numbers under the endings.

Download/Print Worksheet: Floor-Mallet Rudimental Roll Builders

Floor-Mallet On Off A  Floor-Mallet On Off B

The companion worksheets, “On/Off 16th Timing A and B” are about developing Multi-Lateral motion and control of Independent Rolls.  Repeated notes are to played with a Single Independent technique and alternating notes are to be played with a rotary technique (NOT Single Alternating).  This is based on the principle of “Natural Sticking” and is great for refining timing and subdivision, and for balancing the weight of each stroke.

The written version is Mirrored starting on the Outside mallets.  The other 3 versions are: Mirrored starting Inside and Parallel starting Left and Right.

Download/Print worksheets: Floor-Mallet On Off A  Floor-Mallet On Off B

Floor-Mallet Exercises

“Floor-Mallet Exercises” is a collection based on pu-du-dus and paradiddles.

DL-SI/SA Triplets is in 4-2-1 form with a Double Lateral in one hand and alternating single notes in the other.  The structure is the same as Pyramid A from “On/Off 16th Timing A”.  Each single note is played 4 times, then 2 times, then once each as written.

The rest of the exercises are based on paradiddles.  There are two elements, each of which can be played 4 ways (I/O Mirrored or L/R Parallel).

Paradiddle Multi-lateral on Doubles: The sets of 4, 5 and 6 are all Multi-lateral rotary motions.  The final 5-tuplet pattern in each line goes over the down beat of the bar. The actual down beat lies between the 3rd and 4th notes, where the break in the beams is.

6-tuplet Paradiddle Multi-lateral is like the above set, but with the rhythm warped into 5 even notes instead of two 16ths and a 16th triplet.  Mathematically there are six rhythm permutations but two of those break up the 3-note Multilateral so in practice there are four.  The under-bracketed measures below do not fit the pattern.

The warped rhythm makes the location of the middle note of the Multi-lateral questionable for the final permutation in each set.  It can be placed before or after the bar line while maintaining the appropriate start and end of the rhythm.  In these permutations an additional two patterns are listed in ossia.

Download/Print: Floor-Mallet Exercises

There are limitless ways to apply these concepts, but I find these to be especially engaging, challenging, and developmental.

Do you practice on the floor?  What exercises do you use?  How does it help you?  Leave comments below so we can share practice strategies together!