Movement and Posture During Marimba Performance: Marimba Works’ Analysis and Composition of Technical Exercises

Abstract

This article presents ongoing research reflecting the importance of movement and posture during marimba performance and how these aspects can be improved. It also seeks to develop educational material for the marimbist with a focus on creating movement and posture skills, through the analysis of advanced works for marimba. Starting from a literature review in the area; practice of specific marimba works; as well as the results of purposefully created educational material (etudes based on Brazilian and German popular songs), we propose possibilities of movement and posture for the marimbist during his/her performance. Some partial results were achieved, such as the composition and testing of most of the material developed - two of these examples are discussed at the end of this article. With this work, we hope to contribute to the literature on existing methods for marimba, as well as the publication of the original musical material to allow accessibility to the largest possible number of marimba students and performers.