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NEY ROSAURO 1

Educator Series

PERCUSSION

Crossing Grip Extensions

By Ney Rosauro

Ney Gabriel Rosauro is one of the most original

and dynamic percussionists and composers

today. He was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in

1952 and studied composition and conducting

at the Universidade de Brasilia in Brazil, before

getting his master’s degree in percussion at the

Hochschule fur Musik Würzburg, in Germany.

His DMA is from the University of Miami in

Coral Gables, Florida where he is director of

percussion studies. As a composer, he has

written many pieces and methods for percussion

instruments. Most of these have been performed

and recorded by world-acclaimed artists. As a

soloist he has traveled more than 25 different

countries and presented masterclasses and solo

concerts with orchestras in the most prestigious

international percussion venues.

When I first started to play with four mallets, I was a 25-year-old guitar player and composer who had

been studying percussion for two years. At that point, I started looking for a four-mallet grip to use,

and after studying the available grips, I chose the “Burton” grip.

Some years later, during my studies in Germany, I met Leigh Stevens on his first trip to Europe, and

learned of his extended Musser grip. I spent the next four years working very hard with scales and

technical exercises to strengthen my fingers. Because my hands are extremely sensitive, I always had

to put plastic bandages around the bottom of the third fingers. However, I was so much into the grip

that I even performed this way on the vibraphone.

After I finished my studies in Germany, I returned to Brazil to a busy routine of orchestral playing and

teaching, and slowly started loosing the power of my fingers because of a lack of daily practice. To

keep myself alive on the market, I switched back to Burton’s grip on the vibraphone, and later on the

marimba as well.

However, I was not completely satisfied with the Burton grip, so I started to combine the best features

of other grips in order to strengthen the three main technical problems of the grip: 1. the constant

“click” produced by the rattan handles in the palm of the hands; 2. the lack of wrist torque to play one-

hand rolls in small intervals; 3. the lack of four-mallet marimba roll possibilities (always 2 against 2).

In my more than fifteen years of playing mallets, I have developed a personal four-mallet technique.

During my trips around the world, many students have encouraged me to write about the way I hold

the mallets, because it is easy and very effective on the vibraphone, multiple percussion and especially

on marimba. During these contacts with professionals and students from other countries, I have met

other players that were using the same solutions that I am showing in this article. We all instinctively

arrived at the same approach to solve our technical problems of the original Burton grip.

The purpose of this article is to present some extensions for the original Burton grip that makes four-

mallet playing much more independent without losing the grip’s original power. I will be referring to

the four mallets with the following numbers.

Figure 1

Ney Rosauro

Summary of content (4 pages)

PAGE 1
PERCUSSION Educator Series Crossing Grip Extensions By Ney Rosauro When I first started to play with four mallets, I was a 25-year-old guitar player and composer who had been studying percussion for two years. At that point, I started looking for a four-mallet grip to use, and after studying the available grips, I chose the “Burton” grip. Ney Rosauro Ney Gabriel Rosauro is one of the most original and dynamic percussionists and composers today.
PAGE 2
Ney Rosauro Figure 2 space between the shafts of the mallets, allowing the inside mallet to swing up and down. The fingers will be numbered as: The Outside Mallet The 4th finger is the most important finger because it will always hold the weight of the outside mallet (mallets 1 and 4). 1. Place the end of the handle of the mallet between the two halves of the palm. 2. Curl the joint of the 4th finger as much as possible, and hold the mallet with the tip of this finger.
PAGE 3
Ney Rosauro Note that as illustrated in Figures 6 to 11, the closer the interval the more the palm of the hand should be in a vertical position, with the thumb facing the ceiling. Figure 6 Figure 7 Figure 11 Figure 8 (position zero) Application of the “Musser Roll” 2. For intervals of a sixth and larger, continue the movement by pushing the mallet with the thumb as shown below on Figures 9 and 10. On intervals of a sixth (Fig.9), the inside mallet should touch the first section of the thumb.
PAGE 4
Ney Rosauro Mallet Considerations It is very important (especially for the marimba player) to use longer mallets than the average vibraphone/marimba mallets. I use longer mallets on the marimba, and I personally prefer rattan handles, because I think that the rattan’s swing gives a much warmer sound on mallet instruments. Another important point is that the rattan should neither be too thin, which can cause the mallets to swing too much, nor too thick, which causes a dry sound like birch handles.