Online Xylophone: Play Marimba and Glockenspiel

Yes. It is free, needs no account or download, and runs in your browser on a computer, tablet or phone.

Z X C V B N M play C D E F G A B, with S D G H J as the sharps, and Q W E R T Y U play the octave above, with 2 3 5 6 7 as the sharps. I O P carry on up. The left and right arrow keys move the keys down or up an octave, Shift rolls the key you press, Esc silences the bars and, on the vibraphone, the space bar is the damper pedal. Set the bar labels to Keys to see which key plays which bar.

Yes. Tap the bars, or slide a finger across them for a glissando; several fingers work at once. A phone held upright shows about nine bars, so use the arrow buttons to reach the other octaves, or turn it sideways to see more. If you hear nothing, check that the phone is not on silent.

For a bright, dry sound, a xylophone; for a warm, mellow one that rings, a marimba; for a bell-like sparkle, a glockenspiel; and for a long, floating sound with a tremolo, a vibraphone. Each has its own range and tuning here.

Yes. Choose Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, Ode to Joy or Jingle Bells and press Practise: the next bar lights up and the song moves on when you hit it. It does not listen to or grade your timing. To play a song you love, GrooveSheet can transcribe it into sheet music and MIDI from a recording.

No. Every note is synthesised in your browser from the vibrations of a struck bar (modal synthesis), with a resonator tube for the marimba and vibraphone, so nothing is downloaded and it starts at once.

Tap or click a bar to strike it, or press and drag across the bars to play a glissando; a faster swipe hits harder. The long bars on the left are the low notes and the short bars on the right are the high ones. The front row holds the natural notes and the raised row behind holds the sharps and flats, as on a real instrument. On a keyboard, Z X C V B N M play C D E F G A B with S D G H J for the sharps, and Q W E R T Y U play the octave above. Turn on Roll, or hold Shift as you press a key, to repeat the note like a tremolo while you hold it.

All four are tuned bars struck with mallets. A xylophone has hard wooden bars (traditionally rosewood or padauk), a short, dry, bright sound and a range of about three octaves, sounding an octave above its written part. A marimba has wider rosewood bars, a mellow sound that rings for longer and a range of five octaves, with a tube under each bar to deepen the tone. A glockenspiel has small steel bars, no tubes, a bright, bell-like ring and sounds two octaves above its written part. A vibraphone has aluminium bars, a long sustain controlled by a damper pedal, and motor-driven fans in the tubes that give it a wavering tremolo.

A bar of even thickness, struck, rings with partials at 1, 2.76, 5.40 and 8.93 times the main pitch, which sounds like a clank rather than a note. Makers carve the underside of each bar to move the second partial onto a musical interval: three times the pitch (a twelfth) on a xylophone, and four times (two octaves) on a marimba and a vibraphone. A glockenspiel keeps the natural ratios of a plain bar, which is why it sounds like a bell. Here every bar is built from these partials, with the ratios of the instrument you pick. Under a marimba or vibraphone bar, a tube tuned to the same pitch strengthens the main tone.

Soft yarn mallets stay on the bar a little longer, which cuts the high partials and gives a warm, round sound; hard rubber or plastic mallets leave at once, which lets every partial ring and adds a click, for a bright, cutting sound. The Mallets control does the same here. Where the mallet lands matters too: the middle of a bar is where the second partial is silent, so it sounds rounder, and the ends sound brighter. A bar cannot sustain a note by itself, so players hold one by rolling, which means striking quickly and alternating two mallets; turn on Roll and hold a bar to do it. On a vibraphone the pedal lifts the damper felt: with it down the notes ring, and with it up they stop quickly.

No. The free tools need no account and no download. They run in your browser, and nothing you play or drop in is uploaded.

Yes, in any current mobile browser. MIDI keyboards and pad controllers need Chrome, Edge or Opera, on a computer or an Android phone.

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