How to Play Xylophone
- July 1, 2025
- 5 min read
Today, we will be discussing how to play xylophone, though this technique is transferrable to ANY keyboard instrument, including metals (vibraphone, glockenspiel (otherwise known as bells, orchestra bells, or bell set), chimes and crotales) or woods (marimba and xylophone).
We’re gonna discuss:
How to Play Xylophone: The Grip
As with snare drum, we’re going to use a matched grip when learning how to play xylophone and other two-mallet keyboard instruments.
The elements of good keyboard matched technique are similar to snare, but with some slight modifications.
Elements of Good Keyboard Matched technique:
- Fulcrum
- Balance Point
- Hand Positioning
- Pinky Rule
1. Fulcrum & 2. Balance Point
Create your fulcrum between the pad of your thumb and the second joint of your index finger about one-third of the way up the shaft of the mallet (the balance point).
Some players also use the middle finger to help support the mallet, but make sure to keep your fulcrum stable if you choose to do so.
3. Hand Positioning
The hand positioning is exactly the same as with snare drum––the “45 and 45” rule.
Turn your thumbs to face one another at a 45-degree angle and bring your hammers together so the shafts of your mallets form a 45-degree angle between one another.
In addition to fulcrum, hand positioning and the balance point, we are going to use the pinky rule to determine how tall the board needs to be.
4. Pinky Rule
With your hands and arms at a comfortable position just below parallel, you should be able to extend and touch the board with your pinky.
While in playing position, the hammers of the mallet should stay at about four to six inches above the bars. Instead of bringing your mallet heights up and down with volume, keep your hammers low and change your velocity for volume.
Center yourself in the range you will playing and place the music stand close to the board so you can use peripheral vision to see the notes as you read.
How to Play Xylophone: Striking the Bars
The best beating spot is in the center of the bar, and for accidentals (flats or sharps) you can strike on the edge of the bar for a good quality sound as well.
NOTE: Strike hinging from the wrist (using a wrist hinge), NOT the arm.
Rolls
Single stroke rolls are required on keyboard instruments. As a general rule, you should lead roll passages going up with your right hand and going down with your left (UP = RH, DOWN = LH).
Types of Strokes
There are three strokes we should address when learning the xylophone:
- piston stroke
- pendulum stroke
- dead stroke.
1. Piston
With the piston stroke, like a machine, we shoot down and immediately come back up to our starting position. Remember, we’re hinging from our wrist, not our arm.
2. Pendulum
A pendulum is a weight hung from fixed point swinging freely backward and forward. Thus, while performing our pendulum stroke, our mallet never stop moving.
They begin up, and as one goes down the other goes up, never stopping at either the bottom nor top of the stroke. With both hands, it’s similar to what your feet do when you ride a bicycle.
We practice this stroke extremely slowly. The pendulum stroke is a great way to introduce us to legato strokes (a connected and smooth stroke).
This can take a lot of time to master, so don’t be discouraged if you don’t get it right away. Make it a part of your routine and stay consistent and you will see amazing improvement in no time!
3. Dead Stroke
The dead stroke is a distinctly dead and muted sound.
Like with piston, we shoot down but we DO NOT shoot back up, instead keeping the mallet held on the key. The sound “dies” on the bar, since the mallet mutes the bar by resting on it. After the sound dies, return to playing position for the next note.
Dead strokes are notated by an x on or above the stem.
NOTE: Some people refer to this type of stroke as a “ghost note” in which it is notated with an x for the note head rather than an oval. I wouldn’t call a dead stroke a ghost note because in percussion, when we either miss a note and hit nothing or play too softly, it’s considered “ghosting” the note, which could lead to some confusion.
Like I’ve stated in previous tutorials, percussion notation is not strictly standardized so there is some flexibility in how some of these strokes are notated.
If you’re confused, don’t be afraid to ask a fellow student or your instructor!
Congratulations, now you know how to play the xylophone (and ALL the percussion keyboard instruments)!
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Until next time, happy practicing!
