The mini soprano is a lot like my two granddaughters, Kaylee and Madi; they may look petite, sweet and innocent, but they can put out a lot of sound for something so small! This is a kind of ‘mini’ marimba. It has the same range as the regular soprano, only with smaller bars and closer to the ground.
The bars on this one are made of black walnut. A friend of mine has a sawmill and had several pieces of this, so I thought I’d give it a try. It turned out very well. It gets a nice, ringy sound like the padauk. Most of the ones I build have padauk bars, unless my friend can come up with more. Padauk is actually easier to work with and looks really nice.
Students either sit on the floor or on chairs to play this one. She’s pretty short. In the photo below, the mini soprano is the smallest one in the front.
