A group of students spent last week at the University of Delaware studying the finer points of improvisation on the xylophone and vibraphone during a collection of intensive courses.
Professor Harvey Price, head of the percussion area at UD, helped debunk some myths about the instruments.
Myth#1
A xylophone is just a keyless piano.
Fact#1
The xylophone is actually a percussion instrument made up of 36 to 48 wooden bars, covering three to four octaves, Price explained. It is played using two mallets that are made of wood, plastic or metal and give the instrument its characteristic, percussive sound. Playing a xylophone is different than playing a piano because the instrument is larger and the musician has a lot more area to cover during a song, Price said.
Myth#2
Xylophones have never been used in pop music.
Fact#2
During the early 1900s through the 1920s, the xylophone was a very common instrument in American pop music, Price said. It was one of the few instruments could be recorded well with the primitive equipment musicians were forced to use, he said, and appeared in all types of popular songs. And even long after the golden age of jazz, a xylophone solo is featured promintently in the song “Gone Daddy Gone,” recorded by The Violent Femmes in 1982.
Myth#3
Outside of an elementary school music room, no one plays the xylophone anymore.
Fact#3
While the instrument’s popularity did wane after recording techniques improved, the xylophone is still a common instrument on Broadway and in orchestras, Price said. And its cousin, the vibraphone, continues to be a very popular instrument with jazz musicians, he said. The vibraphone uses aluminum bars instead of wooden bars and has a sustain pedal, like those found on pianos. The theme song to the television show “Sex and the City” is played on the vibraphone.
Myth#4
Playing a xylophone or vibraphone is easy.
Fact#4
What makes the vibraphone so hard to play is the fact that it is much simpler than other instruments, like trumpets or trombones, said Gilbran Chong, who came to UD to study the vibraphone from Boulder, Colo. “It’s easy to make a lot of noise on it,” he said, but learning to play it so that it sounds more complex is challenging.
Scroll down to watch a YouTube video of the Super Mario Brothers theme being played on xylophones.
