Editing Vibraphone (section)

===Two-mallet style===
[[Image:Milt_Jackson_07.jpg|thumb|[[Milt Jackson]] playing at Parnell's [[jazz club]] in Seattle, Washington. Note his characteristic palms-inward two-mallet grip.|278x278px]]
The two-mallet approach to vibes is traditionally [[Linearity#Music|linear]], playing like a horn rather than [[Comping (jazz)|comping]] like a guitar or piano. Two-mallet players usually concentrate on playing a single melodic line and rely on other musicians to provide accompaniment. [[Double stop]]s (two notes played simultaneously) are sometimes used, but mostly as a reinforcement of the main melodic line, similar to the use of double stops in solo [[violin]] music. In jazz groups, two-mallet vibraphonists are usually considered part of the "front line" with the horn players, contributing solos of their own but contributing very little in the way of [[accompaniment]] to other soloists.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Shaw-Rutschman |first=Michah |date=2018 |title=Jazz Vibraphone as a Chordal Instrument: A Comprehensive Guide to Comping and Block Chord Techniques |url=https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/100999/SHAW-RUTSCHMAN-DISSERTATION-2018.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |publisher=[[University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign]] |page=1 |oclc=1084742692}}</ref>

Two-mallet players use several different grips, the most common being a [[matched grip]] called [[German grip]], in which the mallets are played palms down, with the thumbs facing each other. In this grip, the mallets are held between the thumb and index finger of each hand, with the remaining three fingers of each hand supporting the shafts. This grip uses a combination of wrist movement and fingertip control to manipulate the mallet.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hans |first=Ben |title=Modern School for Mallet-Keyboard Instruments |publisher=[[Hal Leonard]] |others=Tom Schneller, Jim Sewrey |year=1981 |isbn=978-1-4768-5661-2 |pages=2 |oclc=1098658051}}</ref> Another popular grip is [[French grip (percussion)|French grip]], a grip also commonly used on [[timpani]]. The mallets are again held between the thumb and index fingers and controlled with the remaining three fingers, but the palms are held vertically, with the thumbs pointed upward. Most of the stroke action comes from the fingertip control of the shafts, with the wrists contributing slightly less than they do with the German grip.<ref>{{Cite web |last=[[DRUM! Magazine]] |date=2021 |title=What is the French Grip? |url=https://drummagazine.com/what-is-the-french-grip/ |access-date=2022-03-18 |language=en-US}}</ref>[[File:Vibraphone Orchestra, early 1940s.ogg|right|thumb|upright=1|[[Reg Kehoe and his Marimba Queens]] playing in the early 1940s. Reg Kehoe (center) switches to the vibraphone part way through for a solo using two mallets.]]Passages are usually played with alternating sticking, but [[double stroke]]s (playing two notes in a row with the same hand) are used when convenient to minimize crossing the hands.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Becker |first=Bob |author-link=Bob Becker (composer) |date=October 2009 |others=Gene Koshinski (Interviewer) |title=Two-Mallet Performance |url=https://malletech.com/medialesson/two-mallet-performance/ |publisher=Malletech}}</ref>

The player must pay close attention to the damper pedal to avoid multiple notes ringing unintentionally at the same time. Because the notes ring for a considerable fraction of a second when struck with the damper pad up, and ringing bars do not stop ringing immediately when contacted by the pad, players use a technique called "after pedaling". In this technique, the player presses the damper pedal slightly after striking the bar—shortly enough after so the recently struck note continues to ring, but long enough after so that the previous note stops ringing.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Saindon |first=Ed |date=2008 |title=Ed Saindon Vibe Clinic (Part 2) PASIC 2006 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMnkEoigvv0 |access-date=5 May 2022 |website=[[YouTube]] |at=2:44 |type=video}}</ref>

In another damper technique—"half pedaling"—the player depresses the pedal just enough to remove the spring pressure from the bars, but not enough to make the pad lose contact with the bars. This lets the bars ring slightly longer than with the pad fully up and can make a medium-fast passage sound more [[legato]] without pedaling every note.<ref>{{Cite book |last=David |first=Friedman |title=Vibraphone Technique: Dampening and Pedaling |publisher=Berklee Press Publications |year=1973 |location=Boston, MA |pages=21 |oclc=226205904}}</ref>