I Play the Vibraphone, With My Phone 📱

As obvious as the title says, I’m going to share about my sad yet questionably-funny story.

As I mentioned on my previous post, I don’t have any mallet except that wood mallet that I found randomly in one of the Orchestra Hall’s (OH) locker (which I assume, mallets for drums. So, when we started the bump in process, I can’t find that particular mallet in the OH locker. Then, I try to find something that can act as a temporary mallet, which happen to be a PVC pipe. However, it sounded horrendous! Suddenly, my brain light up a bulb. It all started with a pun, “vibraphone and a phone”. Little did I know that my phone creates a beautiful sound as a mallet! However, I can’t bear to risk the health of my phone and I can’t be using a phone throughout the performance.

            So, our stage manager (SM), Ciklah (Abdullah Azahani Hafiz) give me this:

This mallet sounds a bit ‘steel’ but after a little bit of adjustment with gaffer tape, it sounded even better (but still cannot beat the sound of my phone produced!). Thank you, Ciklah!

My mallet tale does not end here! I also got a help from Music SM, Nagulan. He made a DIY mallet which sounds a bit softer.

It sounded nice but it is too echoing. I need to keep on stomping on and off the sustain pedal which is very tiring, honestly. But it sounded great for curtain call’s overture song. Also, I’ve adjusted the other side of the mallet as well. Yes, gaffer tape it all again!

To conclude, I feel extremely grateful that people are trying to help me. Even though I have zero experience in playing vibraphone, I don’t know which mallet to use, there are people who is willing to help me. Thank you!