Quick facts

  • Build: 0.9.1

  • Open the app:Mallet Board

  • Account/install: None

  • Cost: Free

What this app does

Mallet Board is a projector-first keyboard percussion teaching display. It helps teachers show where scales and note patterns live on marimba, xylophone, vibraphone, and bells without requiring students to crowd around one instrument.

What students can learn

  • Connect note names and scale degrees to keyboard geography

  • See major and minor scale paths across the bars

  • Recognize whole-step and half-step placement

  • Compare common keyboard percussion ranges and layouts

  • Build and hear custom note patterns, chords, and arpeggios

  • Identify basic instrument parts

How to use it

  1. Choose an instrument and, for marimba, the keyboard size.

  2. Select a tonic and scale form.

  3. Turn note names or scale degrees on as needed.

  4. Choose a tempo and direction, then select Play.

  5. Use Free Select to build a custom pattern.

  6. Select Copy link to save or share the setup.

  7. Turn on Presentation Mode for a cleaner projector view.

Instruments and ranges

Mallet Board includes bells, xylophone, vibraphone, and marimba. Available marimba ranges are:

  • 2-octave: C4–C6

  • 3-octave: C4–C7

  • 4.3-octave: A2–C7

  • 5-octave: C2–C7

The 4.3-octave marimba is the default because it closely matches a common school and collegiate instrument.

Controls and modes

Scales

Choose major, natural minor, harmonic minor, or melodic minor. The selected tonic becomes scale degree 1. Confirm the displayed melodic-minor direction and labels before using it for an assessed exercise.

Playback

Choose Slow, Medium, or Fast and play the path Up, Down, or Up & down. Up & down returns without restriking the top note.

Labels and presentation

  • Note names connect written pitches to the bars.

  • Scale degrees show each note’s function in the scale.

  • Presentation Mode keeps the keyboard and selected path visually dominant.

Free Select

Select individual bars to build a note pattern. Select an active bar again to remove it, use Play to hear the notes in sequence, or choose Chord to strike them together.

Anatomy overlays

Optional overlays identify manuals, rails, endboards, paracord, and approximate nodal areas. They are brief teaching aids rather than a complete instrument-anatomy course.

Teaching ideas

  • Introduce a scale: Show note names first, then switch to scale degrees before students move to instruments.

  • Compare major and minor: Keep the tonic the same and ask students which bars change.

  • Prepare a passage: Use Free Select to isolate the notes in a difficult excerpt, chord, or arpeggio.

Sharing setups

Supported settings are stored in the page URL. Use Copy link to place a prepared setup in lesson plans, slides, or messages. Shared links can preserve the instrument and range, tonic, scale form, tempo, direction, labels, overlays, Play-as choice, and selected bars.

After opening a shared link, confirm that the display matches what you intended before teaching from it.

Classroom setup, accessibility, and troubleshooting

  • Use a laptop or desktop connected to a projector, smartboard, or large display.

  • Select a note or press Play before class to confirm browser audio is enabled.

  • Use note names or scale degrees so information is not communicated by color alone.

  • Turn on Presentation Mode and maximize the browser if the keyboard appears too small.

  • Use the instrument and size selector if the wrong marimba range appears.

  • Select an active bar again to remove one note, or use Reset to clear the setup.

  • If a shared link looks wrong, confirm that the full URL was copied without alteration.

Related tools

  • Mallet Board: Teacher-led projection, scale paths, and keyboard geography.

  • Percussion Atlas — Keyboard Map: Student note-reading practice. Available now; public guide coming soon.

  • Scale Trail: Guided scale practice and challenges. Coming soon.

  • Grid Board: Timing-grid and repetition-sequence instruction. Open Grid Board

  • Percussion Atlas — Instruments: Deeper instrument-parts, handling, and care instruction. Coming soon.

Privacy

Mallet Board requires no account. Supported settings can be stored in the page URL so a prepared display can be bookmarked or shared.

Help and feedback

When reporting a problem, include the device and browser, instrument and range, tonic and scale form, active modes, what you expected, and what happened.

About

Mallet Board is a free Backwerd Rhythm Shop classroom app.

© 2026 Backwerd Rimshot, LLC. All rights reserved.