On Apr 15, 2008, at 5:52 PM, David Ilvedson wrote: > "Hitting a string with a marimba mallet is a > different story, so there I would want to set limits." > > Why? Isn't that a cloth covered mallet? I don't see a problem > unless they want to smash the mallet against the strings... > > David Ilvedson, RPT > Pacifica, CA 94044 I was referring not to damage, but to potential for upsetting the tuning. A hard blow to the middle of a string causes wider excursion, and is quite likely to have a tuning impact greater than playing the instrument hard from the keys. And the acceleration of those mallets isn't as limited as a piano's hammers, as they can be accelerated over a good deal more distance than our 45 mm norm. And percussion folks can get a bit carried away <G>. At least that is my experience. I wouldn't want a concert instrument that had been concert tuned to be played with mallets on the strings, then used for another piece or another concert without re-tuning. I guess as a part timer, my perspective is that of needing a tuning to last through a lot of concerts. Hard playing I can handle. But sometimes there are some really crazy isolated unisons, and I strongly suspect something was done that I didn't hear about. Regards, Fred Sturm University of New Mexico fssturm at unm.edu
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