Xylophone

The bars of this instrument can be made of rosewood, padauk, or a synthetic material (primarily fiberglass). The range is commonly 3.5 octaves and sounds one octave higher than written. Mallets are usually made of hard rubber, nylon, or plastic. While a 5 octave marimba has the range of C2 to C7, a xylophone usually goes from F3 to C7, again sounding 1 octave higher than written. The xylophone also has bars of even width throughout the instrument, whereas a standard concert marimba has bars of graduated size. The xylophone has many important and demanding orchestral excerpts and is the most common orchestral keyboard instrument.