Gary Burton demonstrates the Burton Grip

Gary Burton is probably the world's foremost vibraphone player. He was born on January 23, 1943 and raised in Indiana, USA. He taught himself to play the vibraphone and at 17, made his recoding debut in Nashville Tennessee for guitarists Chet Atkins and Hank Garland.

When Burton started playing the vibraphone it was a new instrument manufactured in the USA by Leedy, Indianapolis in the 1920's.


Burton, who specializes in playing jazz and latin music, quickly found that the "grip" he was using to wield 4 mallets at once was not adequate. He devised a method of holding 2 mallets in each hand (known as "4 mallet technique") which allowed the inner mallets to move up and down under the direction on the thumb - while allowing the outer mallets to make small or wide gaps using finger movements.

This technique, named by other players, is now known as "The Burton Grip".

I hope you enjoy watching this video :)