Exploring the
ORCHESTRA
Xylophone
Musical Section:
Percussion (Instruments that produce sound by hitting, shaking or scraping. Other instruments in this family include: celesta, chimes, crotales, cymbals, glockenspiel, maracas, marimba, piano, snare drum, Tam Tam, triangle, tambourine, vibraphone, xylophone and lots of others!) . Other instruments in this family: Bass Drum, Celesta, Chimes, Cymbals, Piano, Tambourine, Timpani, Triangle
About the Xylophone
What it looks like
A xylophone looks like a mini piano keyboard. It is made up of wooden or metal bars arranged in order from shortest to longest. Each bar plays a different note when you hit it. The shorter bars sound higher and the longer bars sound lower.
Using a mallet to hit the bars, the xylophone can play crisp, sharp melodies and rat-a-tat rhythms. It’s a fun way to create bright, snappy music!
Did you know?
The xylophone is sometimes used to create funny sounds in cartoons, like when someone is tiptoeing around, or If there’s a skeleton dancing around, chances are the xylophone is part of the music because the xylophone sounds like bones clattering around!
How to Play
Both Maestros
Hold a mallet in each hand and hit the wooden bars near the middle to make a bright, clear note. Xylophone’s notes don’t last very long. As soon as you hit the bar, the note is finished, so you might want play two notes back and forth to keep the sound going. Try it, it's fun!
Shake, Rattle and Roll!
The xylophone is sometimes called a “wooden drum” because it’s made of wooden bars you hit with mallets, which create a very dry sound. In the famous Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saëns, the xylophone sounds like skeletons dancing at midnight. People love hearing it because it sounds like rattling bones!
