What grip^do you suggered to play the piece "Marimba Spiritual" by Minoru MIKI... a lot of marimbists play this piece with burton grip to have power and energy ... bur i'm play solo marimba pieces with stevens grip ... any suggestions ... RS

Hello,

I believe any grip can be powerful, depending on how you use it. Look at great players like Zivkovic, Moersch or Zeltsman, for instance, who don't actually use burton grip and all have powerful projection. I use the so-called stevens grip for (marimba and) multi-percussion (like Psappha, by Xenakis) and you can make a huge sound with it. There are advantages and disadvantages in all grips I think, as everyone has different hands, fingers (liver, lungs....) - I also think that more important are issues regarding how you use the different grips and these principles are pretty much universal (mallet independence, effective interval change, etc). All these principles should have you perform MARIMBA SPIRITUAL (or any other work) powerfully, with the sound, dinamic range, timbre, colour (etc, etc, etc) and music making you ultimately disire. Good luck!

Greetings for you all,

Pedro Carneiro

I have played Marimba Spiritual with an independent grip (similar to Stephen's) rather than a burton grip, but did try it both ways. Have you tried taditional cross grip? There are advantages to all three grips. I'd suggest trying it a variety of ways and see what works best for you. It's great that you have options. Different pieces need different grips in order to achieve the goal you are working toward.

Stevens

Personally, I find that the choice of grip has little or nothing to do with successful playing. In regard to Marimba Spiritual, I have heard both exceptional and wretched performances, whether they be Stevens, Burton, or traditional grip players. What matters more are the concepts of tone, phrasing, contrast, structure and projection.

Thanks for the compliment, but for the record, I do play with a modified Burton grip, incorporating many of the elements of Stevens: holding the mallets at the very end of the handles, the mallet handles do not touch each other, and the thumb is upward.

I seem to recall Zivkovic also using Burton, but I could be mistaken. Zeltsman definitely uses traditional. Joe Gramley, to name just one, plays the hell out of Marimba Spiritual using Stevens.

WM