A controversial subject on teaching percussion is about the right age to start learning four mallets. As Nancy Zelman says in her book: many colleges, universities and conservatories do not recognize marimba as a separate area of study from percussion, thus the bachelor programmes for solo marimba are limited.

Is percussion the only route to the marimba and four mallet playing ? What is the role of high school? Do teachers train marimbists that they will then have to become percussionists in order to enter a college or university?

This is a subject that needs to be addressed and hopefully become researched in depth in the future. In the chart below, you can see the ages that the participants were first introduced to four-mallet playing. As we can see, a very high percentage of people have started playing during high school. The most popular age is 14 with a percentage of 22%.

What age do you believe is the best to start teaching four mallets? What is your experience on this subject?

Please share your thoughts and opinion.