There is a general lack of material written about chordal playing on mallet instruments. There are, to be sure, a lot of pieces per formed by mallet players that include chordal playing, but little is understood in terms of how to create chords on the instrument. Choosing a chord voicing is like choosing a note in an improvised line. Choosing notes for a voicing is not only a matter of deciding where the notes are to be played, but also realizing what effect and impact that voicing will have on the music. Take, for example, a major triad. The standard way of voicing a major triad is in a closed root position—where the outer two notes are less than an octave apart. This voicing is perfectly acceptable, but should not be your only choice for voicing a triad. An alternative to the closed-position voicing would be to play an open-position […]

August September 1982 Issue