X-Nico

4 unusual facts about Leigh Howard Stevens


Leigh Howard Stevens

The Stevens technique is defined by a vertical hand position (in contrast to the previous flat-palmed Musser player), pivoting around either unused mallet (instead of lifting the unused mallet out of the way), and moving the end of the inside mallet through the palm for larger intervals.

Leigh Howard Stevens (born March 9, 1953 in Orange, New Jersey) is a marimba artist best known for developing, codifying, and promoting the Stevens technique or Musser-Stevens grip, a method of independent four-mallet marimba performance based on the Musser grip.

Leigh Howard Stevens (LHS) studied under some of the most prominent percussion teachers and performers of his time, including jazz drummer Joe Morello, and marimbist Vida Chenoweth, with whom he studied in New Zealand the summer after his freshman year of college.

Malletech

In 1978, marimba performer Leigh Howard Stevens, author of Method of Movement for Marimba, designed a series of marimba mallets for manufacturer Vic Firth.



see also