More on Mallets

Back on the Handbell Community website, Maryann asked a question about my Mike Balter 23 Rattan mallets:

Which lower bells? I ask because I would love to find great mallets to use for a piece that mallets from C4-Eb5.

My answer included this:

Experiment! There is no one mallet that works on any particular bell 100% of the time -- it depends on the sound you want for that particular music AND it depends on the hall.

This is one reason why it's wonderful to rehearse in the performance space - you can hear what it's actually going to sound like. It's also good to have a variety of mallets so you can make changes as necessary.

Maryann hasn't had a chance to reply to that yet, but when I've said that to people in person in the past, they sometimes look crestfallen. Part of that is because mallets are freakin' EXPENSIVE! Even just plain old handbell mallets are not cheap & here I am recommending that everybody have a collection of mallets!

But honestly, it's supposed to be all about the music, isn't it? The music is best served by having the tools necessary for the job at hand, right?

Well, that includes having a variety of mallets so that you can choose the one that works best in your particular performance situation.

I've purchased mallets for both of my church groups. I've been at my Presbyterian church since October 2002 & at my Episcopal church since September 2004. When I started directing there, both churches had mallets that I considered to be sub-standard.

For my Presbyterian church, I bought a selection of TruTimbre mallets & they work pretty well. (I also got the Comfort Grip handles for the bass mallets.)

However, 2 years later, when it came time to buy mallets for my Episcopal church, I decided to experiment. I went out to Ebay and bought a collection of marimba mallets from a small percussion store. (The entire collection was something like only $80, so it was an easy way to experiment!) I tried out each mallet on a range of bells & then labeled each mallet (I have one of those Brother label printer devices.) with that information. I'm happy with the sound they produce, so I think my experiment was a success!

Both churches' sets are supplemented with the Malmark grey mallets because I think they work really well on the upper bells, especially for suspended malleting.

One other thing: for some passages (such as the suspended mallets in Arnold Sherman's Grazioso) we strike the bell not with the mallet head, but with the other end, the soft rubber handle. We strike it on the rim of the bell, holding the mallet perpendicular to the rim itself. (In Grazioso, the G5 & C5 bells use regular yarn mallets played in the normal fashion.) Using the rubber handle creates a very soft, very ethereal effect, which is what I wanted for that "angels coming down from heaven" passage.