1. An orchestral instrument

2. The Marimba is made out of a set of wooden bars struck with mallets to produce musical tones and in many ways the marimba is like the xylophone although it is pitched an octave lower and produces a richer sound The marimba is made of wood and metal. It is a series of wooden bars which vibrate to produce sound when they are hit with a beater. Hanging below the bars are metal tubes of varying lengths, these are called resonators. The metal tubes affect the sound that is produced, amplifying it and making it richer.

3. The tone bars The resonators Marimba stand The frame

4. The lowest note on the five-octave concert grand marimba is C2 (which, by the way, is also the lowest note of a cello). There are many marimbas which don't extend quite that low. Other common ranges are 4.5-octaves (with a lowest note of F or E), 4.3 octaves (ending on A), and 4 octaves (ending on the C below middle C). Going in the other direction, occasionally the marimba range includes an extra half-octave on the top (for a total of up to 5.5 octaves). http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=marimb a+scale&FORM=VIRE7#view=detail&mid=21 7B6F360897793D2508217B6F360897793D2 508 The definition of an octave a series of eight notes occupying the interval between (and including) two notes, one having twice or half the frequency of vibration of the other.

5. The marimba was developed in Chiapas, Mexico from the local diatonic marimba, an instrument whose ancestor was a type of balafon that African slaves built in Central America The Marimba was first built in 1950, therefore it’s 65 years old! The marimba's roots are ancient, extending to early human instincts to strike wood, stone and metal slabs and objects that produced musical tones

6. The marimba is a percussion instrument All the percussion instruments sit right at the back of the orchestra Mallet percussion (also known as keyboard or tuned percussion) is the general name given to the pitched percussion family, almost every percussion instrument is struck with some type of mallet or stick. With the exception of the marimba, almost every other keyboard instrument has been used widely in an orchestral setting. The Marimba

7. I hope you now know all about the Marimba!

8. A superb presentation! Lots of interesting facts and the only Marimba presentation we had this year! Well done! Mr Yeates