Vibraphone facts for kids

The vibraphone is a cool percussion instrument that looks a bit like a xylophone. But instead of wood, its bars are made of shiny aluminium. Just like a piano, the bars are set up so you can play different tunes.

When you play the vibraphone, you use special sticks called mallets. You can hold one or two in each hand. Underneath each bar, there are tubes called "resonators." These tubes help make the sound much louder.

The vibraphone also has an electric motor that you can turn on with a pedal. This motor makes fans spin inside the resonators, creating a unique, vibrating sound. That's how the instrument got its name! Sometimes, people just call it "vibes" for short.

Vibraphones were first made in the United States in 1921.

What are Vibraphone Mallets?

Vibraphone mallets have a rubber ball at the end. This ball is tightly wrapped with yarn or a strong cord. Vibraphone mallets are usually a bit harder than the ones used for a marimba. They often have a narrow stick, usually made of rattan or birch wood.

How to Hold the Mallets

There are different ways to hold vibraphone mallets. A common way is to hold them between your thumb and index finger. Your other fingers help you control the sticks.

Playing with four mallets is trickier, but it lets you play harmony. This means you can play several notes at the same time to create a chord with four different sounds.

Cool Playing Techniques

Sometimes, vibraphone players use special tricks. One is called "pitch bending." This is when you slide a mallet along a bar in a special way to change the sound.

Occasionally, players might even use a bow, like a cello or double bass bow. They carefully rub the bow across the edge of a bar to make a unique sound.

Where You Hear the Vibraphone

The vibraphone is used in orchestras. For example, you can hear it in Alban Berg's opera Lulu. It's also been used in music by famous composers like Olivier Messiaen, Leonard Bernstein, Benjamin Britten, and Ralph Vaughan Williams.

You'll also hear vibraphones a lot in jazz music, especially in small groups called combos.

Related pages

• Glockenspiel
• Xylophone
• Marimba
• Tubular bells

The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Musical Instruments, Könemann; ISBN: 3-8331-2195-5

Images for kids

• 

  Lionel Hampton playing the vibraphone in 1946

• 

  Vibraphones with graduated (foreground) and ungraduated (background) bars

• 

  Former headquarters of J.C. Deagan, Inc. in Chicago, where Henry Schluter invented the vibraphone. Now (2008) home to Century Mallet Instrument Service.

• 

  The Musser M-55 Pro Vibe, a popular vibraphone model

• 

  Inside a vibraphone, showing the bars, resonators, and other parts

• 

  A Busker playing a Metallophone with the resonators removed, probably to make it easier to carry.

• 

  Milt Jackson, around 1980. Notice how he holds his two mallets.

• 

  Vibraphonist Gary Burton and guitarist Julian Lage. Notice Burton's four-mallet grip.

• 

  Vibraphonist Joe Locke's unique four-mallet grip. Many players change the standard ways of holding mallets.

• 

  Matthias Lupri using two cello bows on a vibraphone at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival in 2005

See also

In Spanish: Vibráfono para niños