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A Little Malletmusik is another one of Brian Slawson’s brilliant pieces for beginning mallet percussionists. Despite its simple, catchy, and light character, it has a many pedagogical benefits. It is written to develop the skill of reading large groups of notes, as opposed to one note at a time. The piece also develops recognition of diatonic scales and chord progressions as well as relative majors and minors.
Use of this product is governed by the license terms outlined here.
• Glockenspiel
• Xylophone
• Marimba—4-octave*
*Alternatively, this piece can be performed with each player sharing a 4-octave marimba.
Loosley written in the style of Mozart, “A Little Malletmusik” is a short, easy trio for beginning percussionists that addresses fundamentals of keyboard percussion and ensemble skills. Suitable for students in their first or second year of study, this piece will help solidify concepts of form, scales, keys, dynamics, and character, while allowing the students to focus on music-making.
Throughout the piece, repetitive melodies and phrases are used to build the form, allowing younger students to grasp how repeated material develops to construct a piece of music. Utilizing quarter-, eight-, and half-note rhythms, each section alternates between exploring A minor and C major, teaching your percussionists about relative key signatures. Throughout the repetition, variation is used (particularly in the marimba part) to add excitement to the main melody. Additionally, phrase lengths are varied between eight and seven measures, so the piece doesn’t get too predictable.
Percussionists who have a solid grasp on two-mallet technique, as well as reading in both treble and bass clefs (in the marimba part, should have a lot of fun putting together this piece. Additionally, the composer notes that the entire piece can be performed by three players on one 4-octave marimba, allowing for variation in the performance of the work.
–Justin Alexander
Percussive Notes
Vol. 53, No. 1, March 2015
A Little Malletmusik is another one of Brian Slawson’s brilliant pieces for beginning mallet percussionists. Despite its simple, catchy, and light character, it has a many pedagogical benefits. It is written to develop the skill of reading large groups of notes, as opposed to one note at a time. The piece also develops recognition of diatonic scales and chord progressions as well as relative majors and minors.
Use of this product is governed by the license terms outlined here.
• Glockenspiel
• Xylophone
• Marimba—4-octave*
*Alternatively, this piece can be performed with each player sharing a 4-octave marimba.
Loosley written in the style of Mozart, “A Little Malletmusik” is a short, easy trio for beginning percussionists that addresses fundamentals of keyboard percussion and ensemble skills. Suitable for students in their first or second year of study, this piece will help solidify concepts of form, scales, keys, dynamics, and character, while allowing the students to focus on music-making.
Throughout the piece, repetitive melodies and phrases are used to build the form, allowing younger students to grasp how repeated material develops to construct a piece of music. Utilizing quarter-, eight-, and half-note rhythms, each section alternates between exploring A minor and C major, teaching your percussionists about relative key signatures. Throughout the repetition, variation is used (particularly in the marimba part) to add excitement to the main melody. Additionally, phrase lengths are varied between eight and seven measures, so the piece doesn’t get too predictable.
Percussionists who have a solid grasp on two-mallet technique, as well as reading in both treble and bass clefs (in the marimba part, should have a lot of fun putting together this piece. Additionally, the composer notes that the entire piece can be performed by three players on one 4-octave marimba, allowing for variation in the performance of the work.
–Justin Alexander
Percussive Notes
Vol. 53, No. 1, March 2015
