TigerBill's DrumBeat Community Forums for Free Expert Advice on Drums and Percussion.

In my experience, the two basic challenges that most students face in the early stages of mallet studies are:

1) Being fluent reading the notes on the page

2) Being familiar with where the pitches are on the bells.

For the first part, you can work on that without any instrument. Buy (or borrow) a sightreading book, or a basic mallet book, and work on something called "clef reading" (at least, that's what we called it back in college). That consists of saying the note names in rhythm - you don't even have to sing the pitch, just say the note name. The more you do this, the more automatic it becomes to look at a note on the middle line of the staff in treble clef, and recognize it as a "B."

I'd suggest including sharps and flat as well. If you're reading something that has one flat in the key signature, whenever you see a "B" on the page, say "B flat" - unless, of course, there's a natural sign appearing as an accidental in that measure. Start with diatonic pieces in C major - no sharps or flats in the key signature - so all you'll have to worry about are the basic note names.

In terms of the second part of the equation - finding the notes on the instrument - can you rent a set of bells somewhere? Music stores that supply school music programs often have "bell kits" for sale or rent at fairly affordable prices. Perhaps the school has a set of bells that you could borrow or rent for the summer?

If no bells are available, do you have access to a piano or an electric keyboard of some kind? Those instruments have the very same layout of notes as a set of bells, and even though you're not striking bars with mallets, you're still dealing with the same shapes and patterns. If you can find the notes of the F major scale on a piano, you can find the same notes on a set of bells.

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