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The vibraphone is a
percussion instrument A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Excl ...
in the
metallophone A metallophone is any musical instrument in which the sound-producing body is a piece of metal (other than a metal string), consisting of tuned metal bars, tubes, rods, bowls, or plates. Most frequently the metal body is struck to produce sound, ...
family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist,'' or ''vibist''. The vibraphone resembles the
steel marimba The marimbaphone (not to be confused with the similarly named marimba) is an obsolete tuned percussion instrument, developed by the J.C. Deagan Company of Chicago, Illinois, U.S. in the early 20th century. The marimbaphone had either shallow steel ...
, which it superseded. One of the main differences between the vibraphone and other keyboard percussion instruments is that each bar suspends over a resonator tube containing a flat metal disc. 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 In music, ''tremolo'' (), or ''tremolando'' (), is a trembling effect. There are two types of tremolo. The first is a rapid reiteration: * Of a single Musical note, note, particularly used on String instrument#Bowing, bowed string instrument ...
or vibrato effect. The vibraphone also has a sustain pedal similar to a
piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a musica ...
. When the pedal is up, the bars produce a muted sound; when the pedal is down, the bars sustain for several seconds or until again muted with the pedal. The vibraphone is commonly used in
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...
music, in which it often plays a featured role, and was a defining element of the sound of mid-20th-century " Tiki lounge" exotica, as popularized by Arthur Lyman. It is the second most popular solo keyboard percussion instrument in classical music, after the marimba, and is part of the standard college-level percussion performance education. It is a standard instrument in the modern percussion section for
orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...
s, concert bands, and in the marching arts (typically as part of the front ensemble).


History


Invention

Around 1916, instrument maker Herman Winterhoff of the
Leedy Manufacturing Company Leedy is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Denoe Leedy (1900–1964), American classical pianist, music educator and music journalist *Gene Leedy (1928–2018), American architect * Harold Gavin Leedy (1892–1989), American Fed ...
began experimenting with '' vox humana'' effects on a three octave (F to F)
steel marimba The marimbaphone (not to be confused with the similarly named marimba) is an obsolete tuned percussion instrument, developed by the J.C. Deagan Company of Chicago, Illinois, U.S. in the early 20th century. The marimbaphone had either shallow steel ...
. His original design attempted to produce this effect by raising and lowering the resonators which caused a noticeable vibrato. In 1921, Winterhoff perfected the design by instead attaching a motor that rotated small discs underneath the bars to achieve the same effect. After sales manager George H. Way termed this instrument the "vibraphone", it was marketed by Leedy starting in 1924. The Leedy vibraphone managed to achieve a decent degree of popularity after it was used in the novelty recordings of "
Aloha 'Oe ''Aloha'' ( , ) is the Hawaiian word for love, affection, peace, compassion and mercy, that is commonly used as a simple greeting but has a deeper cultural and spiritual significance to native Hawaiians, for whom the term is used to define a ...
" and "Gypsy Love Song" in 1924 by vaudeville performer Louis Frank Chiha. However, this instrument differed significantly from the instrument now called the "vibraphone". The Leedy vibraphone did not have a pedal mechanism, and it had bars made of steel rather than aluminum. The growing popularity of Leedy's instrument led competitor
J.C. Deagan, Inc. J. C. Deagan, Inc. is a former musical instrument manufacturing company that developed and produced instruments from the late 19th- to mid-20th century. It was founded in 1880 by John Calhoun Deagan and initially manufactured glockenspiels. It w ...
, the inventor of the original steel marimba of which Leedy's design was based on, to ask its chief tuner, Henry Schluter, to develop a similar instrument in 1927. Instead of just copying the Leedy design, Schluter introduced several significant improvements. He made the bars from aluminum instead of steel for a mellower tone, adjusted the dimensions and tuning of the bars to eliminate the dissonant harmonics present in the Leedy design, and introduced a foot-controlled damper bar. Schluter's design became more popular than the Leedy design and has become the template for all instruments now called "vibraphone''"''. Both the terms "vibraphone" and "vibraharp" were trademarked by Leedy and Deagan, respectively. Other manufacturers were forced to use the generic name "vibes" or devise new trade names such as "vibraceleste" for their instruments incorporating the newer design.


Use

While the initial purpose of the vibraphone was as a novelty instrument for vaudeville orchestras, that use was quickly overwhelmed in the 1930s by its development in
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...
music. The use of the vibraphone in jazz was popularized by
Lionel Hampton Lionel Leo Hampton (April 20, 1908 – August 31, 2002) was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, and bandleader. Hampton worked with jazz musicians from Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman, and Buddy Rich, to Charlie Parker, Charles M ...
, a jazz drummer from California. At one recording session with bandleader
Louis Armstrong Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several era ...
, Hampton was asked to play a vibraphone that had been left behind in the studio. This resulted in the recording of the song " Memories of You" in 1930, containing what is often considered to be the first instance of an improvised vibraphone solo. In its early history, the vibraphone was often used in classical music to give compositions a jazz influence. The first known composer to use the vibraphone was Havergal Brian in his 1917 opera, '' The Tigers'', which called for two of them. However, since the piece was lost and did not premiere until 1983, Ferde Grofé's ''
Grand Canyon Suite The ''Grand Canyon Suite'' is a suite for orchestra by Ferde Grofé, composed between 1929 and 1931. It was initially titled ''Five Pictures of the Grand Canyon''. It consists of five movements, each an evocation in tone of a particular scene t ...
'', completed in 1931, is sometimes considered to be the first piece to use a vibraphone instead. Other early classical composers to use the vibraphone were Alban Berg, who used it prominently in his
opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libre ...
'' Lulu'' in 1935, and William Grant Still, who used it in his '' Afro-American Symphony'' that same year. While the vibraphone has not been used quite as extensively in the realm of classical music as it has with jazz, it can often be heard in theatre or film music, such as in
Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...
's '' West Side Story''.


Characteristics


Range

The standard modern instrument has a range of 3
octave In music, an octave ( la, octavus: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been refer ...
s, starting from the F below
middle C C or Do is the first note and semitone of the C major scale, the third note of the A minor scale (the relative minor of C major), and the fourth note (G, A, B, C) of the Guidonian hand, commonly pitched around 261.63  Hz. The actual frequen ...
(F to F in scientific pitch notation). Larger or 4 octave models from the C below middle C are also becoming more common (C to F or C). Unlike its cousin, the glockenspiel, the vibraphone is generally a non- transposing instrument, written at concert pitch.


Mallets

Vibraphone mallets usually consist of a rubber ball core wrapped in yarn or cord and attached to a narrow dowel, most commonly made of rattan or birch and sometimes of fiberglass or nylon. Mallets suitable for the vibraphone are also generally suitable for the marimba. The mallets can have a great effect on the timbre, ranging from a bright metallic clang to a mellow ring with no obvious initial attack. Consequently a wide array of mallets is available, offering variations in hardness, head size, weight, shaft length and flexibility. Classical players must carry a wide range of mallet types to accommodate the changing demands of composers who are looking for particular sounds. Jazz players, on the other hand, often make use of multi-purpose mallets to allow for improvisation.


Construction


Bars

Vibraphone bars are made from aluminum bar stock, cut into blanks of predetermined length. Holes are drilled through the width of the bars, so they can be suspended by a cord (typically paracord). To maximize the sustain of the bars, the holes are placed at approximately the nodal points of the bar (i.e., the points of minimum amplitude around which the bar vibrates). For a uniform bar, the nodal points are located 22.4% from each end of the bar. Material is ground away from the underside of the bars in an arch shape to lower the pitch. This allows the lower-pitched bars to be a manageable length. It is also the key to the mellow sound of the vibraphone (and marimba, which uses the same deep arch) compared with the brighter xylophone, which uses a shallower arch, and the glockenspiel, which has no arch at all. These rectangular bars have three primary modes of vibration. The deep arch causes these modes to align and create a consonant arrangement of intervals: a fundamental pitch, a pitch two octaves above that, and a third pitch an octave and a major third above the second. For the F bar that usually forms the lowest note on a vibraphone, there would be F as the fundamental, F as the first overtone, and A as the second overtone. As a side effect, the arch causes the nodal points of the fundamental vibration to shift closer towards the ends of the bar. After beveling or rounding the edges, fine-tuning adjustments are made. If a bar is flat, its overall pitch structure can be raised by removing material from the ends of the bar. Once this slightly sharp bar is created, the secondary and tertiary tones can be lowered by removing material from specific locations of the bar. Vibraphones are tuned to a standard of A = 442 Hz or A = 440 Hz, depending on the manufacturer or the customer's preference. While concert pitch is generally A = 440 Hz, the sharper tuning of A = 442 Hz is used to give the vibraphone a slightly brighter sound to cut through the ensemble. Like marimbas, professional vibraphones have bars of graduated width. Lower bars are made from wider stock, and higher notes from narrower stock, to help balance volume and tone across the range of the instrument. The bars are anodized after fine-tuning (typically in a silver or gold color) and may have a glossy or matte finish. These are cosmetic features with a negligible effect on the sound. The bed for the bars is made by laying down four wooden rails onto each end of the frame. Each rail has a series of pins with rubber spacers. As the cord passes through the holes of the bar, they rest on the pins to suspend the bars. On each outer side, the ends of the cord attach together with a spring to provide tension and flex.


Resonators

Resonators are thin-walled tubes, typically made of aluminum, but any suitably strong material can be used. They are open at one end and closed at the other. Each bar is paired with a resonator whose diameter is slightly wider than the width of the bar and whose length to the closure is one-quarter of the wavelength of the fundamental frequency of the bar. When the bar and resonator are properly in tune with each other, the vibrating air beneath the bar travels down the resonator and is reflected from the closure at the bottom, then returns to the top and is reflected back by the bar, over and over, creating a much stronger standing wave and increasing the amplitude of the fundamental frequency. The resonators, besides raising the upper end of the vibraphone's dynamic range, also affect the overall tone of the vibraphone, since they amplify the fundamental frequency, but not the upper partials. There is a trade-off between the amplifying effect of the resonators and the length of sustain of a ringing bar. The energy in a ringing bar comes from the initial mallet strike, and that energy can either be used to make the bar ring louder initially, or not as loudly but for a longer period of time. This is not an issue with marimbas and xylophones, where the natural sustain time of the wooden bars is short, but vibraphone bars can ring for many seconds after being struck, and this effect is highly desirable in many circumstances. Therefore, the resonators in a vibraphone are usually tuned slightly off-pitch to create a balance between loudness and sustain. A unique feature of vibraphone resonators is the shaft of rotating discs, commonly called fans, across the top. When the fans are open, the resonators have full function. When the fans are closed, the resonators are partially occluded, reducing the resonance of the fundamental pitch. A drive belt connects the shafts to an electric motor beneath the playing surface and rotates the fans. This rotation of the fans creates a
tremolo In music, ''tremolo'' (), or ''tremolando'' (), is a trembling effect. There are two types of tremolo. The first is a rapid reiteration: * Of a single Musical note, note, particularly used on String instrument#Bowing, bowed string instrument ...
effect and a slight vibrato. Oftentimes, vibraphones, and other mallet instruments, will include non-functional, decorative resonator tubes with no corresponding bar above to make the instrument look more complete. In 1970, Deagan introduced the ElectraVibe, which dispensed with resonator tubes entirely and took a signal directly from the bars, adding a tremolo in a preamplifier. This sought to improve the portability of the instrument and solve the problem inherent in all tuned mallet instruments: miking the bars evenly.


Damper mechanism

For the first few years of production, the original Leedy vibraphone did not include a mechanism for damping, or stopping, the sustaining tones. In 1927, the J.C. Deagan company introduced a pedal mechanism that has not changed substantially since. A rigid bar beneath the center of the instrument is pressed upward by an adjustable spring and engages a long felt pad against the sharps and the naturals. A foot pedal lowers the bar and allows notes to ring freely; releasing the pedal engages the damper and stops any vibrating notes. One common flaw of this damping mechanism is that the bar is often supported at one point in the middle, causing it to damp the instrument unevenly in the upper and lower registers. To combat this, some manufacturers have made silicone- or liquid-filled damper pads whose fluid shape can conform evenly around the bars.


Motor

Vibraphones usually have an electric motor and pulley assembly mounted on one side or the other to drive the disks in the resonators. Often, especially within classical music, the vibraphone is played with the motor off. Certain models for outdoor use as part of a front ensemble have the motor removed entirely. In those cases having the motor off is the norm and is not used unless specifically called for. The early vibraphones used motors that were intended to power record-player turntables and had limited to no speed-adjustment capabilities. Whatever speed adjustments were possible were made by moving the drive belt among a small number of pulleys (usually three) of varying diameters. Later, variable-speed AC motors became available at reasonable prices. These motors allow the adjustment of the rotating speed by a potentiometer mounted on a control panel near the motor. They typically support rotation rates in the range of 1–12 Hz.


Technique


Two-mallet style

The two-mallet approach to vibes is traditionally linear, playing like a horn rather than comping like a guitar or piano. Two-mallet players usually concentrate on playing a single melodic line and rely on other musicians to provide accompaniment. Double stops (two notes played simultaneously) are sometimes used, but mostly as a reinforcement of the main melodic line, similar to the use of double stops in solo
violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
music. In jazz groups, two-mallet vibraphonists are usually considered part of the "front line" with the horn players, contributing solos of their own but contributing very little in the way of accompaniment to other soloists. Two-mallet players use several different grips, the most common being a matched grip called
German grip In percussion, grip refers to the manner in which the player holds the percussion mallet or mallets, whether drum sticks or other mallets. For some instruments, such as triangles and large gongs, only one mallet or beater is normally used, h ...
, in which the mallets are played palms down, with the thumbs facing each other. In this grip, the mallets are held between the thumb and index finger of each hand, with the remaining three fingers of each hand supporting the shafts. This grip uses a combination of wrist movement and fingertip control to manipulate the mallet. Another popular grip is French grip, a grip also commonly used on timpani. The mallets are again held between the thumb and index fingers and controlled with the remaining three fingers, but the palms are held vertically, with the thumbs pointed upward. Most of the stroke action comes from the fingertip control of the shafts, with the wrists contributing slightly less than they do with the German grip.Passages are usually played with alternating sticking, but
double stroke In ''rudimental drumming'', a form of percussion music, a drum rudiment is one of a number of relatively small patterns which form the foundation for more extended and complex drumming patterns. The term "drum rudiment" is most closely associa ...
s (playing two notes in a row with the same hand) are used when convenient to minimize crossing the hands. The player must pay close attention to the damper pedal to avoid multiple notes ringing unintentionally at the same time. Because the notes ring for a considerable fraction of a second when struck with the damper pad up, and ringing bars do not stop ringing immediately when contacted by the pad, players use a technique called "after pedaling". In this technique, the player presses the damper pedal slightly after striking the bar—shortly enough after so the recently struck note continues to ring, but long enough after so that the previous note stops ringing. In another damper technique—"half pedaling"—the player depresses the pedal just enough to remove the spring pressure from the bars, but not enough to make the pad lose contact with the bars. This lets the bars ring slightly longer than with the pad fully up and can make a medium-fast passage sound more legato without pedaling every note.


Four-mallet style

The four-mallet vibraphone style is multi-linear, like a piano. In jazz groups, four-mallet vibraphonists are often considered part of the
rhythm section A rhythm section is a group of musicians within a music ensemble or band that provides the underlying rhythm, harmony and pulse of the accompaniment, providing a rhythmic and harmonic reference and "beat" for the rest of the band. The rhythm sec ...
, typically substituting for piano or guitar and providing accompaniment for other soloists in addition to soloing themselves. Furthermore, the four-mallet style has led to a significant body of unaccompanied solo vibes playing. One notable example is Gary Burton’s performance of " Chega de Saudade (No More Blues)" from his Grammy-winning 1971 album, '' Alone at Last''. The most popular four-mallet grip for vibraphone is the Burton grip, named for Gary Burton. One mallet is held between the thumb and index finger and the other is held between the index and middle fingers. The shafts cross in the middle of the palm and extend past the heel of the hand. For wide intervals, the thumb often moves in between the two mallets, and the inside mallet is held in the crook of the fingers. Unlike many other grips, the outer right mallet is the leading mallet rather than the inside two. Although some early vibes players made use of four mallets, notably Red Norvo, Adrian Rollini, and sometimes
Lionel Hampton Lionel Leo Hampton (April 20, 1908 – August 31, 2002) was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, and bandleader. Hampton worked with jazz musicians from Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman, and Buddy Rich, to Charlie Parker, Charles M ...
, the fully pianistic four-mallet approach to jazz on the vibraphone is almost entirely the creation of Burton. Practitioners of Burton grip tend to make more use of double strokes as compared to two-mallet players. This is done not only to avoid crossing the hands, but also to help minimize the motions between the two bar rows. For example, an ascending E major scale could be played by keeping the left hand on the upper bars and the right hand on the lower. For linear passages with leaps, all four mallets are often used sequentially. Also popular is the
Stevens grip Stevens grip is a technique for playing keyboard percussion instruments with four mallets developed by Leigh Howard Stevens. While marimba performance with two, four, and even six mallets had been done for more than a century, Stevens developed th ...
, named for marimbist Leigh Howard Stevens. Many other grips are in use, some variations on the Burton or Stevens, others idiosyncratic creations of individual vibes players.


Dampening

Pedaling techniques are at least as important for the four-mallet vibraphonist as for two-mallet players, but the all-or-nothing damping system of the sustain pedal presents many obstacles to multi-linear playing, since each line normally has its own damping requirements independent of the other lines. To overcome this, four-mallet players also use "mallet dampening" and "hand dampening". There are many benefits of being proficient in these techniques, as it allows the player to transition between chords much more smoothly and play new notes without having them affect the quality of the chord when the pedal is down. The most common form of mallet dampening occurs when the vibraphonist plays a note with one mallet before pressing another mallet into the ringing bar to stop it from sounding. Usually the damping mallet and the original striking mallet are held in different hands, but advanced players can, in some circumstances, use the same hand. Mallet dampening also includes "dead strokes", where a player strikes a bar and then, instead of drawing the mallet back, directly presses the head of the mallet onto the bar, causing the ringing to stop immediately. This produces a fairly distinctive "choked" sound, and dead strokes are often used just for that particular sound in addition to the damping aspects. Hand dampening (also known as "finger dampening") can be used to damp a note on the lower bars while striking a nearby upper bar. As the player strikes the upper bar with a mallet, they simultaneously press the heel of their hand or the side of their finger into the ringing lower bar, using the same hand to strike the upper bar and damp the lower one. Using both hands, it's possible to damp and strike two bars at once.


Extended techniques


Five to six mallets

To achieve a denser sound and richer chord voicings, some vibraphonists have experimented with three mallets per hand, either in both hands for a total of six mallets or in just the left hand for a total of five.


Bowing

Like many other
metallophone A metallophone is any musical instrument in which the sound-producing body is a piece of metal (other than a metal string), consisting of tuned metal bars, tubes, rods, bowls, or plates. Most frequently the metal body is struck to produce sound, ...
s, percussionists can use an orchestral bow on the vibraphone to achieve sustained tones that will not decay, nor have a percussive attack. This is done by bowing the bars perpendicular to their outer edges. Due to the different mode of vibration, this also changes the sound of the vibraphone by emphasizing the higher harmonics and giving it a more "glassy" tone. Because changing notes requires large and precise movements, fast passages are not often written for bowed vibraphone.


Pitch bend

Bent notes In music, a glissando (; plural: ''glissandi'', abbreviated ''gliss.'') is a wikt:glide, glide from one pitch (music), pitch to another (). It is an Italianized Musical terminology, musical term derived from the French ''glisser'', "to glide". In ...
can be achieved on the vibraphone by sliding a rubber or plastic mallet from the nodal point to the center of the bar. This technique is only able to lower the pitch by about a half step.


Repertoire


Classical

As part of the standard percussion section, the use of the vibraphone in classical music has increased over the past fifty years, especially within the collegiate percussion ensemble.


Concertos

Several concertos have been written for the vibraphone, the first of these being Darius Milhaud's Concerto for Marimba, Vibraphone and Orchestra written in 1947. Other prominent concertos for the vibraphone include
Ney Rosauro Ney Rosauro (born 1952) is a Brazilian composer and percussionist. His compositions include solo works written for marimba, vibraphone, and multi-percussion, as well as several concerti for solo percussion and orchestra. A common theme in his work ...
's Concerto No. 1 for Vibraphone written in 1996 and Emmanuel Séjourné's Concerto for Vibraphone and Strings written in 1999.


Solos

The vibraphone is the second most popular solo keyboard percussion instrument, after the marimba. Solos may be
jazz standard Jazz standards are musical compositions that are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive lis ...
s specifically arranged for the instrument or newly composed pieces that are either jazz-oriented or classical in nature. Some of the most performed solo literature includes ''Mirror from Another'' by
David Friedman David Friedman may refer to: Music * David Friedman (percussionist) (born 1944), American jazz musician * David Friedman (composer) (born 1950), Broadway and film composer Film * David Friedman (actor) (born 1973), American film and TV actor and ...
, "Mourning Dove Sonnet" by Christopher Deane, ''Trilogy'' by Tim Huesgen, and "Blues for Gilbert" by Mark Glentworth.


Manufacturers

Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, each manufacturer attracted its own following in various specialties, but the Deagan vibraphones were the models preferred by many of the specialist jazz players. Deagan struck endorsement deals with many of the leading players, including
Lionel Hampton Lionel Leo Hampton (April 20, 1908 – August 31, 2002) was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, and bandleader. Hampton worked with jazz musicians from Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman, and Buddy Rich, to Charlie Parker, Charles M ...
and
Milt Jackson Milton Jackson (January 1, 1923 – October 9, 1999), nicknamed "Bags", was an American jazz vibraphonist, usually thought of as a bebop player, although he performed in several jazz idioms. He is especially remembered for his cool swinging solo ...
. However, the Deagan company went out of business in the 1980s, and its trademark and patents were purchased by Yamaha. Yamaha continues to make percussion instruments based on the Deagan designs. In 1948, the Musser Mallet Company was founded by
Clair Omar Musser Clair or Claire may refer to: *Claire (given name), a list of people with the name Claire *Clair (surname) Places Canada * Clair, New Brunswick, a former village, now part of Haut-Madawaska * Clair Parish, New Brunswick * Pointe-Claire, Que ...
, who had been a designer at Deagan. The Musser Mallet Company continues to manufacture vibraphones as part of the Ludwig Drum Company after their purchase in 1965. The Leedy Manufacturing Company, the original designers of the vibraphone, had already merged with Ludwig Drums in 1929 under C. G. Conn.


References


Bibliography

* * *


Further reading

* * *


External links

*
A Demonstration of Mallet Dampening
by Gary Burton
Vibraharps
from The Deagan Resource
"Mourning Dove Sonnet"
performed by Doug Perry {{Authority control C instruments Jazz instruments Keyboard percussion instruments Metal percussion instruments 20th-century percussion instruments Plaque percussion idiophones American inventions American musical instruments