Online Marimba — Play a Free Marimba

What is a marimba?

A marimba is a tuned percussion instrument made of wooden bars arranged like a piano keyboard, with a row of metal resonance tubes suspended beneath each bar. You play it by striking the bars with soft yarn- or rubber-headed mallets. Each bar produces a clear, woody pitch, and the resonator underneath amplifies it and gives the note a warm, rounded afterglow. The marimba has roots in West African and Central American musical traditions and is now a staple of solo percussion, world music and contemporary classical writing.

The online marimba here uses a real sampled marimba — General MIDI program 12 — so every key has the same soft wooden attack and gentle ring as a physical instrument, not the bright, glassy ping of a synthesizer pretending to be one.

What does a marimba sound like?

A marimba sounds woody, warm and percussive, with a soft attack and a note that lingers briefly before fading. Where a xylophone is bright and punchy, the marimba is darker and more mellow, with richer low overtones thanks to its larger bars and longer resonators. That warmth makes it surprisingly expressive: a simple melody on the marimba can sound plaintive and song-like, and fast repeated notes take on a rolling, hypnotic quality.

Because each note is a clean strike that decays on its own, the marimba is a forgiving instrument for beginners — notes rarely blur into a muddy chord, so easy songs picked out one note at a time always sound crisp.

Marimba vs xylophone

People often confuse the two, but they sound notably different. A xylophone has shorter bars tuned to a higher octave, so its sound is bright, sharp and punchy — ideal for cutting through an orchestra. A marimba has larger bars tuned lower, with longer resonators, which gives it a warmer, more resonant and more mellow tone. If you want the bright, punchy sound on this keyboard, play higher up; for the marimba's characteristic warmth, stay in the middle and lower register.

Why play a marimba online?

A concert marimba is one of the more expensive and least portable instruments a person can own — a full five-octave instrument is well over two metres wide and costs as much as a used car. An online marimba removes all of that:

• Play any melody, in any key, without buying or storing a physical instrument.
• Shift the register with Octave and Transpose to reach the warm, mellow range the marimba is known for.
• Hold Space as a sustain pedal to let longer notes ring.
• Record your performance and download it as an MP3, entirely in your browser.

It opens the instant you arrive — no install, no sign-up. See the about page for the technology behind it.

How to play the marimba on your keyboard

Play the marimba with your mouse, your touchscreen, or your computer keyboard — every key sounds the moment you trigger it. Middle C (C4) sits under the M key, with the surrounding notes under the surrounding keys. The highlighted keys below outline a simple pentatonic run that sounds natural on the marimba; press Play notes to hear it, then explore on your own. If your melody runs past the visible keys, the Octave control shifts the whole instrument.

Songs and scales that suit the marimba

The marimba shines on simple, rhythmic melodies and pentatonic material. Try Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star or Ode to Joy, and explore the major pentatonic and minor pentatonic scales — their five-note shapes almost always sound right under the mallets. The full set of piano scales is highlighted on the same keyboard.

The other six instruments

The marimba is one of seven real instruments sharing one keyboard here. For a different colour, head to the online piano and try the Music Box for a delicate, tinkling tone or the Harp for long, shimmering strings — plus the piano, Rhodes, organ and synth.

Frequently asked questions