Grips

A couple years ago I had some minor issues with the thumb on my right hand, but it went away.  Now my right little finger hurts like crazy and it pops and catches when I close my hand, especially first thing in the morning.  I played congas a while back but I stopped playing months before my little finger started giving me fits.   It doesn't bother me a lot when I play vibes, but damn it's killing me when I try to play congas.  I wonder if it's too much time on a computer keyboard?  

I'm playing a faster, pretty heavy chart with the big band I play in, and I've found that when I play loudly, my ring fingers on both hands press into the mallet really hard and it becomes painful after playing for half an hour or so. I've tried to relax my hands, but then I can't get to the dynamic I need to play. Anyone know of any tricks to fix this, or should I just be using harder/heavier mallets? I'm playing a set of pretty soft Malletech JC12 mallets, and I play Burton grip. Thanks!

Hi!

I'm looking for suggestions regarding vibe mallets. Been using older sets of Malletech DF16's and DF12's for quite a while. I've recently tried Vic Firth M38's (Saindon), Innovative Percussion DF30's and DF30L's and Balter TM 46R's. None of which feel or sound exactly right to me. What I'm in search of are mallets the have the weight of the Saindon M38's, the tone (core hardness and yarn wrap) somewhere in between the IP DF30's and my old Malletech DF12's?

I've started accompanying myself on guitar while playing the vibe. This is a lot of fun, and solves two problems for me:

1) I'm not a very good guitarist, particularly when it comes to soloing. Plus you pretty much have to alternate chording and soloing when playing solo, which can make for a disjointed type of playing.

2) I'm not a very good vibist, particularly when it comes to chording. As a piano player, I feel limited by the fewer chord notes available on the vibe. I also have a problem with the sameness (or overload) of the vibe tones when chording and soloing at the same time.

Although Gary has said in another post that he doesn't run into the issue, I've always had problems with my mallets bumping into each other using the Burton Grip. I had sort of an Aha moment and I wanted to share with y'all.

Hey everyone!
So I'm going to be getting into more in depth vibraphone studies here shortly. I have done some vibraphone in the past but have spent much more time on marimba. Long story short my Stevens grip is much better than my burton grip. I have traditionally used Burton grip on vibraphone as I find it gives me more strength and makes the small intervals easier with the absence of raised accidentals. Am I better off to continue developing my Stevens grip and learn to use it properly on vibes or is using both common? Thanks!