Jackson 1

Theodore Jackson
Andrew Smith
ENC 1102
20 July 2016

The Agility and Superiority of Four-Mallet Techniques

The majority of the research done for this bibliography was derived from my own
personal library of percussive texts along with the books owned by my professors in the UCF
percussion department. I decided that I wanted to make sure I was providing the least amount of
bias I could in this project, so I decided to include at least one method book each from a different
type of four-mallet player.

Method of Movement by Leigh Howard Stevens

This text highlights the importance of using an independent style grip known as the
Musser-Stevens technique. In this book. Stevens claims that the virtuosity achievable with this
grip is unattainable with a cross grip. The reason for this being that each mallets position relies
on the other. While in the independent style technique, each mallet acts objectively of each other
with minimal residual effect (natural due to the hand anatomy of humans).

Jackson 2

Four-Mallet Marimba Playing by Nancy Zeltsman

Currently reviewing an errata sheet of this book. Will have more information soon.

Four Mallet Studies by Gary Burton

Gary Burton is probably the most famous jazz vibraphonist to ever walk the earth, and it
will stay that way. He invented his own technique in the 1960s and ever since it has caught fire
in the world of jazz. It is rare to go to a music club this day and age without seeing a
vibraphonist in a jazz quintet or small group. More often than not, I can assure you they will be
playing Burton grip. This grip came about form Gary not being able to fully function on a
musical level (intellectually) due to the restrictions of Traditional Cross grip. He claims that he
would often have to play fast musical passages with two mallets and then pick up two more in
order to comp (to create an accompaniment) while playing chords for a soloing musician. This
process was not applicable to his career so flipped the mallets around and was able to achieve
everything he needed to for his career, which still continues to this day. More information to
come.

Jackson 3
Simply Four by Gifford Howarth
More information to come.

Marimba: technique Through Music by Mark Ford

More information to come.

Works Cited
Stevens, Leigh Howard. Method of Movement for Marimba. Asbury Park, NJ: Keyboard
Percussion Publications, 1979. Print.
Four more texts to be cited.

Jackson 4