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What is the difference between a Marimba and a Xylophone?

By kevin | May 2, 2008

This is part of the percussion fundamentals series of Articles on the Percussion Education Blog.

One of the most often mis-understood differences is the difference between a Marimba and a Xylophone. This article aims to clarify those differences, and also point out the similarities between the two.

The Marimba and the Xylophone both have wooden bars. The word Xylophone comes from the greek “xylos” meaning wood. Therefore there can be no such thing as a “metal xylophone” - any metal bar instrument is either a Glockenspiel, Vibraphone or Metallophone.

The main practical difference between a Marimba and a xylophone is one of range.

The xylophone is generally a much higher pitched instrument, and is sounds one octave higher than its written pitch, therefore it can have a very bright and high sound.

XylophoneThe Xylophone

The Marimba is written at sounding pitch, and has much lower notes than the Xylophone. The lowest note on a xylohone is normally “middle C” (sounding pitch), while the largest five octave Marimbas can go two octaves below Middle C.

The Marimba

The xylophone is also generally played with much harder mallets than the marimba, often made of very hard rubber or even wood or plastic. The Marimba is usually played with mallets that are wound with soft yarn, and this allows it to have a very mellow rolled sound.

It might look like the marimba has more “tubes” under the notes, but the xylophone has them as well - they are just smaller. The Tubes are called “resonators”, and their function is to amplify the sound. The lower the note, the larger the resonating tube needs to be, hence why the marimba needs to have larger tubes under the notes.

You can learn more about the Marimba and Xylophone by checking out my longer article on Mallet Percussion instruments

 

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Topics: Mallet Percussion, Marimba, Music Education, Percussion Fundamentals |

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