How to hold mallets and play your first notes on bells

Hold the mallets like drumsticks: lightly but securely, palms down. Aim for the center of the bar and let the mallet bounce right back up. That's most of it. The steps below cover grip, instrument height, and where to aim, then three short exercises for your first notes.

Step 1: Hold the mallets

Mallets use the same matched grip as snare drum sticks. If you've already learned how to hold drumsticks, you know this grip.

• Hold at the fulcrum. Hold the shaft lightly but securely between your thumb and the first joint of your index finger, about a third of the way up from the end. Check that the mallet stays in your hand and still bounces freely.
• Wrap the back fingers loosely. They hold the mallet against your palm without squeezing.
• Palms down. The backs of your hands face the ceiling.
• Narrow V. The heads stay close together so both mallets can reach the same bar.

Use the mallets made for your instrument. Most school bell kits use hard plastic or hard rubber mallets. Brass mallets are only for some steel bells, and only if your teacher or the maker's guide says your bells can take them. Never use brass or other metal mallets on wooden bars like a xylophone or marimba: they can dent or crack the bars. Before you use any hard mallet, ask your teacher.

Step 2: Set the instrument height

The bars should sit at about belt height. Your elbows hang relaxed near your sides, and your forearms slope slightly down toward the bars. Stand far enough back that you can reach without leaning.

Step 3: Choose where to strike the bar

Each bar rests on pins or a cord at two spots, a little in from each end. Those spots are the bar's nodes: when the bar rings, it barely moves there, which is why the supports go there. A note played over a node sounds thin and dull. The center rings the most, so it's the usual place to aim.

• Bottom row (the natural notes): aim for the center.
• Top row (sharps and flats): hit the center, or the front edge nearest you when you're moving fast.
• Stay off the pins. If your notes sound dull, first check where the mallet lands. Then check how far you stand from the instrument and how high it is. Standing too close or too far, or bars set too high or too low, can pull your strokes toward the pins.

In the computer-made example below, every spot plays written D except "Front edge, top row," which plays written D♯. Bells sound two octaves higher than written. Step 6 explains how bell notes are written.

Step 4: Let the mallet rebound

Start each stroke a few inches above the bar, drop the head into the bar, and let it bounce right back up to where it started, as if you're pulling the sound out. A mallet that stays on the bar stops the ring. In the example above, compare Center with Press into the bar: same spot, but only one keeps ringing.

• Use your wrists. Your arms carry the mallets from bar to bar.
• Keep the grip loose enough that the mallet can bounce. A tight grip can keep the mallet on the bar too long and stop the ring.
• Play softly at first. Bells are loud, and a big stroke makes them clang.

Step 5: Alternate your hands

Unless the music says otherwise, alternate: R L R L. Many players start with the right hand, but a left-hand start is fine too, and sometimes it fits a phrase better. When a part shows letters above or below the notes, those tell you which hand to use. See how to read snare drum music for sticking marks.

Alternating also keeps your hands from crossing on stepwise notes. Before you play a line, look ahead and plan the sticking so neither hand has to reach across the other.

Step 6: Play your first notes

A note about pitch: the note names on the bars and in the exercises below are written notes. Bells sound two octaves higher than written, and the examples play that sound. That's why bells sound so much higher than the same written note on a piano. Bell parts use concert pitch note names, so your B♭ is the band's concert B♭.

First, find C. It's the bottom-row bar just to the left of a pair of top-row bars. Every C on the instrument looks like that, so once you find one, you can find them all. Tap the bars below to hear them.

Each exercise starts with four clicks. Watch the bar light up: lime for your right hand, amber for your left. Play along on your own bells. Use Slower until every note rings.

Common first-day problems

Practice

Play each exercise slowly every day. When you can play all three without stopping and every note rings, practice finding the bars without looking at the names: in Find the Bar, you see a note on the staff and tap its bar on the bells. When that's easy, move to the level with sharps and flats. For reading notes on the staff, see reading mallet music.