The Opening of ‘Thunderstruck’ Looks Different When You Follow One of Layla Clark’s Mallets

Pick the mallet on the left of the screen during Layla Clark’s opening bars. It has to be in motion almost as soon as the note sounds. Meanwhile the other hand is approaching a different bar. The two routes are easier to see separately than in the blur of the full-speed performance.

A viewer described the pattern as an arpeggio and singled out the difficulty of playing it with mallets. Their comment gives the eye somewhere specific to go. It also helps explain why a guitar part can look like a different piece of work when someone plays it on a marimba.

To do that arpeggio pattern with mallets on a xylophone is no joke. Amazing!!🤘

Listen for the recurring pitch that gives the phrase a place to return. The notes around it change, but that return makes the riff easy to recognize. Watching one mallet at a time gives you a better look at how Clark keeps finding those points even when the other hand is moving away.

Some commenters call the instrument a xylophone. CBS Pittsburgh identifies the instrument Clark plays in the clip as a marimba. The wooden bars give the notes a clear attack, and the metal resonators beneath them help carry the sound.

Clark told CBS Pittsburgh the passage took a long time to learn. The recording lets you see a small part of what that work involved. A strike has to sound cleanly, the mallet has to clear the bar, and the hand has to arrive at its next position before the listener notices any change in tempo.

The next time the rest of the Jaguars enter, keep your eyes on the front ensemble. Once you know what the hands are doing, it is easier to hear the opening figure as part of the larger arrangement.