What Does Vibraphone Sound Like?

What does vibraphone sound like?

Metallic, hard, soft, gentle, glassy, oscillating, wafting, lustrous, muted, caressing, gossamer, ethereal, drifting, trembling, voice-like

. The sound of the vibraphone is greatly lacking in overtones.

How many notes are in a vibraphone?

While

four notes

can be played simultaneously, much of the time the vibist will play singular lines particularly when performing with other instruments which provides harmonic support. It is not necessary to indicate what type of mallets a performer should use (eg. hard or soft).

What is the difference between a vibraphone and a xylophone?

The main difference between xylophone and vibraphone is that

while in xylophone wooden bars are used which are thicker and generally shorter; in vibraphone aluminum bars are used

. The bars in vibraphone are paired with a resonator tube. These tubes have butterfly valves on the upper end and are driven by a motor.

How does a vibraphone create its vibrating sound?

These discs are attached together by a common axle and spin when the motor is turned on

. This causes the instrument to produce its namesake tremolo or vibrato effect. The vibraphone also has a sustain pedal similar to a piano.

Which percussion instruments are non pitched?

Non-Pitched Percussion instruments are what most people call drums. They do not necessarily have a definite pitch. Non-pitched percussion instruments include

snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, tambourine, triangle

and many others.

After first striking the middle of a bar with a soft mallet in the normal manner, the pitch bend is obtained by

pressing a hard mallet onto the bar at a nodal point and then sliding it away from the node as the note sustains

. The audible result is a descending pitch, typically of about one semitone.

A trumpet has a

bright tone that sounds like the word buuuuup

. Trumpets project more easily than other instruments. Trumpet players can dull their sound using mutes. Piccolo trumpets, pocket trumpets, bass trumpets, and baroque trumpets all produce unique timbre.

Vibraphone + woodwinds

Similarity with

clarinets

played with a soft embouchure. A good blend is also achieved with the saxophones.

The bars of marimbas, vibraphones and similar bar percussion instruments are tuned by shaping their geometry

. Bars are typically tuned by carving out a “cutaway” or “undercut” on the bottom of the bar, while maintaining a flat playing surface on top.

Marimba mallets use a softer yarn than vibraphone mallets, which use cord

. The harder cord and rounder shape of the mallet head allows the mallets to produce a clear sound from the metal bars of the vibraphone. Note the differences in appearance between the Vic Firth marimba and vibraphone mallets below.

Tuning a drum to 442 would

make it slightly sharper than the rest of the band

, if everyone was tuned to 440 or 432. If we measure the temperature in the room and find that it’s colder than normal, instruments will sound sharper, and typically in a hot room they will sound flatter.

The tuned percussion instruments include drums such as the timpani,

tuned bars of wood or metal

such as the Xylophone, Marimba, Glockenspiel, and the Vibraphone; Tubular bells; and keyboard instruments such as the Celesta and the piano.

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the loudest (and largest) instrument in the world is the

Boardwalk Hall Auditorium Organ

. This pipe organ was built by the Midmer-Losh Organ Company, and is housed in the Main Auditorium of the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

The sax is a very loud instrument

in that the minimum volume required to play without holding anything back (as far as projection and sound quality goes) is very high compared to say a flute or clarinet or in some cases even a trumpet.

The sound is

quite clangy, a cross between the smoothness of a musical saw and a poor glockenspiel

. Wooden knobs mounted on strips of spring steel lie on each side of the metal sheet. The player holds the flexatone in one hand with the palm around the wire frame and the thumb on the free end of the spring steel.

Full, lively, singing, eloquent, introspective, supernatural, sensuous, lustrous, bright, metallic, vibrant, clear, glassy, flute-like, shrill, brilliant, sparkling, calm, thin, whistling, round, pure, muffled, solemn, austere, dark, muted, open, sustaining, rough, wafting, soft, sweet, merry, dancing, veiled.