Hi. I just bought an old Deagan 3 octave Xylorimba for fun.
Any good books for learning the basics, like grips, etc.
Thanks!
- Bill

HI,
if you really want to learn playing, you should take lessons from a good teacher
Michael

Last week, I got my hands on the new four-mallet marimba playing book by Nancy Zeltsman. Its GREAT! The thing is really big. I don't have it on hand, but its a little thinner than two of the Goldenberg books stacked on top of each other.
It covers EVERYTHING. So many questions I had, this book answered. Its great for the beginner to advanced. It covers mallet selection, rolls, phrasing, tone production, everything! and that is only in the first few chapters!
There is a part on grip, obviously it explains traditional cross-grip (and extremely thuroughly too). Of course that one chapter might be for the traditional grip player, but everything else in the book is "unisex". 🙂
She has 50 etudes that are musical and present alot of problems, not only technically but musically too. There are simple ones that are only for focusing on tone production, yet very tricky ones too.
There are also short pieces like Debussy and Beethoven transcriptions. But at the end, it gets into advanced territory, explaining how to play such pieces as "See ya Thursday" and "Merlin". This is a conservatory education in one book!
I highly recommend it to anyone of all levels. I cannot put the book down, and everyday I start my practice sessions with a few of her etudes.
~Behzad