Welcome to Gaia! ::

Hey i was just making a topic for this. I thought it would be cool to talk to other people who play 4 mallets.

it doesnt matter if you just started, or if your amazing just be nice.

~reserved~

I learned last year...but I never had to actually use it, so I'm really bad at it...
Sorry I can't help...since you're probably better than me already at 4 mallets...and I forgot what style/grip we use... sweatdrop crying

It isn't as painful for me...I just can't keep consistent intervals, single mallet rotation/flicking stuff, and just my overall technique isn't that good... gonk

But I'm practicing...! I must get it down... xd

Good luck to ya and keep practicing...! 3nodding

Ohmygoodness. Four mallets. Where do I start?

Basically everyone in our show this year had either four or six mallets!

DID YOU KNOW THAT THERE ARE SIX MALLET TECHNIQUES?!?!
O_______________________________o

*shivers* Four mallets, I agree, was painful to learn, but now it's my favorite. Some of our Region music was fourmallet. I hated that song... stare

Cross grip is good on vibraphones though, just for the record xD

I heard of six and eight mallet technique...it's hecka crazy!

I've done four-mallet for a while. Though personally I still like two, or even three. But I had unusual training in two mallet so I can usually play faster than most people, even though my reading sucks...

But I just started with six, and its an uber power trip. It can get REALLY confusing though.

If you start getting burning pains in between your fingers, might I suggest bandaids? xD or tape. tape works really good, especially electrical tape and ducked tape >)

also another way to get better at flicking with the first and fourth mallets you could have two mallet in one hand and hold onto the inner one while making a circle all the way around with the other. makes you get alot of torque whenever you're playing, trust me.

Well, it depends on where your pain is coming from. When playing, if you get blisters (or if they're starting to form or sting really bad) on the side of your middle finger, take a piece of ducttape, wrap it around your finger (so that the sticky side isn't touching you), measure how much you need to be comfortable, then fold it over and make a ring that you can slip on and off. If you do it right, they can work rather well. But you don't need to wear it all the time. You can do the same thing for the palm of your hand but that one is much more difficult to make and harder to keep on.

BUT! If you're using correct technique you shouldn't be getting blisters in the first place and the pain shouldn't be too bad. (Yes, I know that sometimes there just isn't anyway around the pain but it took four days of straight playing from dawn to dusk to put even the smallest blister on my hands)

Oh, you can also find the coldest instrument (to me, I think its the vibes.) and during breaks, put your hands on the keys (as long as you clean them) or if you have metal frames (those get cold too.). It feels better.