How to Play the Xylophone (and Glockenspiel)
To play the xylophone, hold one mallet in each hand between your thumb and first finger, with the other fingers loosely round it, and strike the middle of each bar with a quick stroke that bounces straight off, so the note rings. Find C, the longest classroom bar, learn the letters in order and start with three-note tunes such as Hot Cross Buns.
Works in the UK and the US. This version uses US music words (measure, quarter note, eighth note, staff); the UK version uses bar, crotchet, quaver and stave. · UK version of this page
Updated · By the Classfern Music Department
Key facts
- Grip: thumb and first finger hold the mallet about a third of the way up the handle; the other fingers wrap loosely. Palms face down.
- Strike the center of the bar. Over the cord or pins that hold it, the bar sounds dull.
- Bounce: lift the mallet straight off after each note. Pressing into the bar stops it ringing.
- Move from the wrist, not the arm, and keep both mallets a little above the bars, ready.
- Alternate hands (right, left, right) for steps between neighboring bars; never cross your arms.
- Stand or sit so the bars are at about waist height, an arm’s length away.
- Use the mallets that came with the instrument. Hard metal heads are for glockenspiels and can damage wooden bars.
Try it: follow the lights, then play it yourself
Press Play the song to hear it and watch each bar and letter light up. Then press Your turn: a star shows the next bar, and the tutor moves on when you press the right one (on screen, or follow on your own instrument). Marked by Classfern It counts how many notes you got right first time. Nothing is saved or sent.
Now showing: Hot Cross Buns. A dash is a held beat; | is a bar line (end of a measure); ′ marks the high notes from C5.
E D C – | E D C – | C C C C D D D D | E D C –
Sounds are made in your browser. This page never uses the microphone, and nothing is recorded or sent.
How do you hold xylophone mallets?
Hold each mallet between the thumb and the side of the first finger, about a third of the way up from the end, and curl the other fingers loosely round it. Keep your palms facing down and the heads a few centimetres above the bars.
This is called matched grip, because both hands hold their mallet the same way – it is the same grip drummers use on a snare drum. The mallet should feel balanced: hold it too near the end and it wobbles, too near the head and it will not bounce. If your knuckles go white you are squeezing too hard; a relaxed hand gives a bigger, rounder sound.
Where do you hit a xylophone bar?
Hit the middle of the bar, between the two points where the cord or pins hold it. That is where the note is loudest and clearest. Near the ends or over the pins the bar sounds dull and short.
On a chromatic instrument with a raised row of sharps and flats, you may also strike a raised bar near its front edge when a passage moves fast, because it is closer to you. Whatever you do, let the mallet bounce off: the bar needs to vibrate freely to ring.
How do you play a song on the xylophone?
Find the first note, learn the tune by its letter names, and play it slowly with alternating hands. Say or sing the letters as you play, then speed up only when every note is right.
Step-by-step tutorial: Hot Cross Buns (3 notes)
- Find the three bars you need: E, D and C. On a classroom set, lift the others off.
- Play E with your right hand, D with your left, C with your right: “Hot cross buns”.
- Play it again starting with the left: E (L), D (R), C (L).
- Now the quick notes: four Cs and four Ds, alternating R L R L, twice as fast as before.
- Finish with E D C, and let the last C ring for two beats.
E D C – | E D C – | C C C C D D D D | E D C –
Tutorial 2: Mary Had a Little Lamb (4 notes)
The notes are C, D, E and G. Start on E with your right hand and step down E D C, then back up D E E E. The jump to G comes in measure 4: reach with whichever hand is nearer, and keep the other ready on E.
E D C D | E E E – | D D D – | E G G – | E D C D | E E E E | D D E D | C – – –
Tutorial 3: Ode to Joy (5 notes)
Beethoven’s tune (1824) uses C, D, E, F and G, all next to each other, so it is perfect for alternating hands. Watch the dotted rhythm at the end of each line: a long E, a short D, then a long D.
E E F G | G F E D | C C D E | E D D – | E E F G | G F E D | C C D E | D C C –
Should you alternate hands on the xylophone?
Yes. Alternating right and left is the normal way to play, because each hand gets time to lift and the notes stay even. Start every tune with your stronger hand, and for big jumps use the hand that is nearer the next bar.
Repeated notes are always alternated (R L R L), like a drummer’s single strokes. For a step to the next bar, alternate; for a step back, alternate again. If your hands would have to cross, it is fine to play two notes in a row with one hand. Percussionists call these choices “sticking”, and they write R and L above the notes – see Classfern’s drum rudiments page for the same idea on a drum.
What songs can you play on a xylophone?
Start with songs of three to five notes: Hot Cross Buns, Mary Had a Little Lamb, Ode to Joy, Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and When the Saints Go Marching In. All are traditional or long out of copyright, so they are free to use in lessons.
Classfern’s easy xylophone and glockenspiel songs page has 11 of them written in letters, from three notes up to a full octave, and the online xylophone on lessonplanner.info has hundreds more traditional tunes to play along with. We leave out modern songs because they are still in copyright.
Beginner checklist
Self-assessed Tick these off as you go:
- I can hold both mallets loosely, palms down.
- I can find C, E and G without looking at the letters.
- My notes ring: I bounce off the middle of the bar.
- I can play Hot Cross Buns with alternating hands.
- I can play a five-note tune, such as Ode to Joy, at a steady speed.
Playing the glockenspiel
Everything here works on a glockenspiel too. Its metal bars ring for longer, so play a little more gently and let notes overlap only when the music asks for it. Classroom glockenspiels are often lighter and smaller than xylophones, so rest them on a table, not your lap, to keep the bars free to ring. For more, see the online glockenspiel and the xylophone notes chart.
More music tools
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