anyone's kid learning the xylophone? recs for instrument?

[Halcyon]

Hi

My son is interested in learning the xylophone and I'd like to get him a nice student xylophone but not spend a lot of money.....

 

any ideas? thank you!

[Rebecca VA]

No advice (no percussion experience here), but he should go for it! Last year my daughter was in a county-wide music competition. It wasn't exactly a piano competition, though most of the contestants played piano -- but there was one high school senior who played the marimba. He was electrifying -- he was so extremely good that he won first place. He was hoping to be admitted to a music conservatory majoring in percussion, and I imagine he probably was admitted to several schools on scholarship.

 

So playing xylophone can lead to great things!

[Halcyon]

Thanks! I think it's too early for my son to play piano-I think he wouldd get frustrated--but he really enjoys making music with glasses of water--he numbers each cup and then writes down his "songs".

 

Of course, he's been getting mad when we drink his instruments :tongue_smilie:

[JoyfulMama]

I played the glockenspiel beginning in 8th grade, which led to other similar instruments throughout high school depending on music selections (chimes, xylophone, and vibraphone). I learned the flute prior, and also learned handbells.

Honestly I would speak directly to a music director in your school district to see if there would be an opportunity to borrow or use one of their instruments, if there is any kind of friendly relationship between homeschoolers and the ps system. As your son gets older, and increases his skills, a band or orchestral director may be very interested in having the instrumentation option for music selection.

I never bought any of the percussion instruments. They were all owned by the school. I was able to borrow a marching glock to practice at home, however all other instruments were available for me to practice after school.

[Dmmetler]

For a 7 yr old, there are a few options.

 

1). Sonor makes a glockenspiel, diatonic with moveable bars, with F# and Bb accidentals included, range from C" to F''', which West music will sell you for about $35. It is also often available used, because it's the home instrument used for the pre-keyboard/music reading part of the Kindermusik curriculum for 5-7 yr old children. It's very high pitched, and the short range can get annoying, but is a nice start to mallet percussion and is good for developing fine motor skills and practicing music reading.

 

2.) There is also a chromatic glockenspiel made by Angel, sold my Musician's friend, and often listed as a "bellset". Range is from G-G, chromatic, and it comes in a plastic case. The mallets STINK-buy real ones-I like medium rubber bell mallets. The sound isn't quite as good as the one by Sonor, but the pitch is decent, and it's playable. It usually is about $20, but I've seen it bundled in quantity for as low as $12.99 if you can find multiple people who want to order together.

 

3.) Moving up on expense, but also quality are Orff instruments. These come in all ranges from Soprano to Bass, and there are glockenspiels, xylophones, and metallophones. The best brands are Sonor, Studio 49, and Peripole Bergerault. Orff instruments, for the most part, are diatonic with removable bars and accidentals available separately. You can also get a second box with chromatic bars only. Peripole makes some full chromatic instruments on stands, which are an intermediate step and normally used by children between the ages of 12-14, but before moving to full orchestral instruments. In Orff classes, these are used to teach music reading, instrumental playing, and improvisation, and are almost always used in ensemble, rather than as solo instruments.

 

These are NOT cheap-you will pay anywhere from about $200 for a fairly small glockenspiel to well over $1000 for a full chromatic xylophone.

 

4.) Percussion bellsets. For about $500, you can get a student percussion set, from a lot of companies, containing a small chromatic bellset and a practice pad or snare drum, with a stand that can be used for both instruments. These are designed for band students to use for home practice, and the sound is...well...not great. But it's better than nothing, to say the least.

 

5). Finally, you get up to the real thing-the Musser or Peripole professional level xylophones, marimbas, vibraphones and the like. You're looking at thousands of dollars, and pretty much having to have a room of your house to keep it in, because these babies are about like having at least a baby grand piano. But they ARE sweet instruments. Most universities have practice rooms with these available.

 

As far as playing mallet percussion, if you have a community school of the arts, usually affiliated with a university school of music, such a program typically has prep department classes for community students. This may include an Orff ensemble class, and many have classes specific for home schoolers, or private lessons with a graduate student or university faculty member. The best part about such a program, when you're talking about an expensive instrument, is that it should give the child access to the college practice suite and the instruments there, so that he can play the real thing, even if he's using a less expensive bellset at home for daily practice. This is great when you have a child who wants to play harp, or marimba, or even just try out that big concert grand piano.

 

 

Good mallet players are almost always excellent pianists as well-the skills are very comparable.

 

Finally, a good resource for a child interested in mallet percussion as well as one of the best home school music resources I've found is "The Complete Music Reading Activities Kit"-this is a music reading curriculum broken down into "packs", designed for a student to work through self paced, using either barred instruments or keyboard. It starts out very simple, and a 7 yr old with good reading skills could work through it with very little adult support. A 4 yr old would probably require a little more support, but certainly can learn the concepts and sing the songs.

[monalisa]

The post before gave lots of good ideas for this! My dd7 has learned the glockenspiel this year and last as part of Kindermusik for the Young Child referred to in the previous post. It is a great instrument for learning beginning music theory, and it is easy to play. She has a small one that she uses at home and takes to class, but they have larger ones in class that they sometimes use, and also use for recitals.

[Halcyon]

thank you so much!!