Which of Keiko Abe's works would you consider the easiest to tackle?

I have a good deal of four mallet performance experience, but am by no means great at it. I would say my performance level is equivalent to a skilled college junior or an average college senior.

The only Abe works I have attempted as of now are "Frogs" which I did not look at too deeply because it did not interest me musically or asthetically, but seemed easy enough, and "Memories of the Seashore" which I have only looked at a big, but found to be very easy, and will be performing as a duo later this week as part of Rebecca Kite's Marimba Performance Class.

The rest of the pieces of hers that I have chanced to glance at have intimidated me by the notation. When I listen to some pieces performed by others, I sit there and think that I could perform them effectively, but believeing that I could based on one viewing, and actually being able to, are two different things.

So my question is, what do you feel are some of her easier pieces, and why? I'm far more interested in the justification than the difficulty rating, as I know I could look on any number of graded lists and get a rough idea of difficulty, however, I do not always find those lists to be accurate, and also I know there are some parts of my playing that are above average, while others are below, and those lists do not allow me to try and match a potential piece to my strengths and what I wish to work on.
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Then, as far as the Keiko Abe marimba mallet line by Yamaha goes. First of all, does anyone know if the chart that matches her pieces with mallet reccomendations from the line is available online anywhere, or where I can get one? And also, if you use these mallets, which do you use the most often in your performing? I want to start purchasing these, as I feel kind of lame at college with my Smith mallets, which are great as beater mallets, but are not heavy enough to really build up chops or to get a good sound quality from a 5 octave instrument in a big hall. However, they look to be a bit pricy, so I want to start with purchasing the ones I will use most, and build my collection up as I have the money to spend.

Thank you for your help.

Hey

My first experience with an Abe work was "variations on japanese children's songs" which i found completely manageable as a high school senior. agreed, the notation does look a little weird at first glance, but that really does not correlate into its difficulty. It just takes some getting used to.
I would recommend that you pick up the book "Works for Marimba" and try something out of that, perhaps one of the later pieces.
Give it a try...her works are a lot of fun to play

I would consider Frogs to be keiko abe's easiest piece.

Right now I'm working on Dream of the Cherry Blossoms, Prism (solo) which is in "works for SOLO marimba" (not to be confused w/ "works for marimba"), and Prism Rhapsody concerto for 1 marimba (my only other Abe experience was Frogs)... these all have pretty straightforward notation, so if you want to avoid things that are visually frightening... you could check those out... I'm going to be a senior in high school next school year, and these pieces are definitely feasible..

also, Michi is a really awesome and aesthetically appealing piece that uses a lot of lower end<3 and has an improv section, so you might want to check that out too hehe

As for the mallet question goes... when I try out mallets I usually go for the most generic kind (medium-hard, in my opinion) and then expand through the line as necessary (usually outward from the in-between) in relation to what my repertoire calls for...

keep in mind the keiko mallets have rattan handles... I don't know if you prefer that or not... but I just feel like that is a big deal in deciding what mallets to buy....

if you're only considering them for the sole purpose of having nicer mallets, you could probably find other things that are a tad cheaper... like the innovatives... but my recommendation: the encore, nancy zeltsman line<3

good luck!!