First Thread, but really...

[THSdrummer]

How do you guys work on your bell/marimba chops? I'm terrible at them...and I really want to expand my music horizon. I used to be excelent at Paino, maybe I should take it up again?

[Ehrin]

I use the Goldenberg keyboard book a lot. It has good exercises and excerpts in it.

[chriszilla03]

For 4-mallet playing, try this:

Place your hands at a comfortable interval, like a 4th or a 5th.
Play slow quarter notes with mallets 1,3 and then 2,4 hitting at the same time.
In your right hand, do triplets, then 8ths, sixlets, 16ths.
Change and do it all with you left hand.

This helps build up your muscles as well as your independence due to the triplets and such.

Another is to play a chord consisting of CGEB, playing quarter notes, every 4th hit go down one note at a time, Starting with the B to a B flat, then 4 later take the E to and E flat, and so on. Repeat this until you're down an entire octave; it should work all your positions, and work your forearm muscles if you're using your wrists.

Play a major chord, say Bb; Bb, D, F, Bb. 8th notes ascending, keep going up. It should look like this:
Bb,D,F,Bb
D,F,Bb,D
F,Bb,D,F
Bb,D,F,Bb
And at the end you should be an octave higher, then go back down.

Hope this helps, if you have questions about those explanations, feel free to ask.

[Marimba6]

The Goldenberg Modern School book is really an awesome book, but you won't realize just how good it is until much later. Read a little out of it each day, then flip to the back and work up an excerpt one at a time. Mark Ford's Marimba:technique through music is also great. A very practical approach.