Keyboard Mallets (4 mallets)

The following text and images taken from:
Method of Movement Excerpt - by Leigh Howard Stevens

Outside mallets 1 and 4

Start with the arm hanging at the side - wrist and fingers relaxed. Raise the forearm from the elbow until it is parallel to the floor. Turn the wrist so that the surface of the thumb nail is parallel to the ceiling.

Slip the shaft of a mallet between fingers 2 and 3. Rest it on the second joint of the third finger. Now curl fingers 3 and 4 around the shaft until the tips of the fingers just touch the section of the palm near the base of the fingers. Adjust the length of the mallet so that only 1/8th of an inch protrudes beyond the third section of the fourth finger. The shaft of the mallet should touch the second finger in its first section, closer to the second joint than the first.

Check the following points before proceeding:

1. Fingers should be relaxed - mallet hangs in position
2. Weight of mallet heads should pull up slightly on ends of fingers 3 and 4 - more so on 4.
3. Shaft should lie on top of second joint of third finger and beneath first section of second finger, close to, but not beneath second joint.
4. Edge of hand should face floor.

Inside mallets 2 and 3

Place the end of the mallet handle lightly into the palm flesh 1 to 1 1/2 inches beneath the base of the thumb. Set the shaft down on the side of the third joint of the first finger. The weight of the mallet will be distributed like a hanging lever: the end of the handle will pull up on the flesh beneath the thumb, and the shaft will push down on the first finger. The mallet should be balanced in position.

Check the following points before proceeding:

1. Fingers and wrist should be relaxed.
2. Position of fingers holding the outside mallet should not have changed.
3. Inside mallet should hang between flesh in base of thumb and third joint of first finger.

Drop thumb onto handle. Curl joints of second finger so that third section of second finger touches end of shaft.

The above except is only the beginning. Please download the complete excerpt from Method of Movement Excerpt by Leigh Howard Stevens for more complete information.

Video lessons on 4 mallet keyboard technique

Vic Firth signature artist Gifford Howarth details each step along the road to developing command and control over 4 mallet keyboard percussion technique.

http://www.vicfirth.com/education/keyboard/howarth.html

Giff Howarth's text page with further explanation of the Steven Grip complete with color photos.
http://www.vicfirth.com/education/articles/howarth.html

VIc Firth - An Introduction to Four Mallet Technique by Rich Malloy