Burton grip was named from his inventor and jazz vibraphonist Gary Burton. He was born in Indiana on 1943 and later moved to Berklee College of Music in Boston. Playing with two mallets was too incomplete for him and he decided to start playing with four mallet in order to create harmonies for himself. In the video below you can see Gary Burton playing a solo with his technique. It is clear that the top mallet is carrying the melody voice. To support the flow of the melody line, the inner left hand mallet alternate with the top mallet while at the same time, the three bottom mallets are used as an accompaniment. ‘With expanded four-mallet playing, the mallet instrument can join the ranks of the very few musical instruments, such piano and guitar, which have sufficient possibilities for any musical situation from ensemble playing to accompanied solos’.
Burton grip
'What I practiced at first was a slow blue, to get use to how to maneuver the mallets around.' Gary Burton
Or visit : http://www.garyburton.com/
http://vicfirth.com/gary-burton-vibraphone-masterclass/
Have a look on the following video of Gary Burton explaining his four-mallet grip :
