A percussion mallet or beater is an object used to strike or beat a percussion instrument in order to produce its sound.
The term beater is slightly more general; A mallet is normally held in the hand while a beater may be foot or mechanically operated, for example in a bass drum pedal; Drum stick is less general still, but still applied to a wide range of beaters. Some mallets, such as a triangle wand, are normally used only with a specific instrument, while others are used on many different instruments.
Some mallets, such as vibraphone mallets, are normally just called mallets, others have more specialised names including:
- Drum sticks, of many types, some used with a wide variety of instruments.
- Wands used to strike a triangle.
- Rutes, used with many instruments.
- Brushes, used particularly with snare drum but also with many other instruments.
- Tippers used to strike a bodhrán.
- Hammers, also just called mallets, used with a xylophone.
- Bachi, used with Japanese taiko drums.
Read more about Percussion Mallet: Major Percussion Mallet Companies
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Under the running tap that are not the hands of a child.”
—Louis MacNeice (1907–1963)