- 1). Hold a mallet in each hand, between your thumbs and forefingers. Hold your fists forward while you grip the mallets, as if you were holding the handle bars of a bicycle. Don't squeeze the mallets, but hold them firmly enough to keep them from falling out of your hands. As you play different pitches on the xylophone, you will be striking these notes with one of the mallets.
- 2). Hit the longest bar of the xylophone, which will be located on the far left of the instrument. This is the lowest pitch on the xylophone.
- 3). Strike the next note to the right. This bar will have a slightly higher pitch.
- 4). Hit each note, moving from right to left -- in order -- to hear all of the pitches on the xylophone from low to high.
- 5). Lay a mallet on the lowest note and gently drag the mallet all the way to the highest note and then back to the lowest note. This slur of notes is known as a "glissando." This technique is a method of changing the pitch in a rapid, connected manner.
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