A marimba is a large musical instrument that looks like a wooden xylophone with tubes hanging beneath it. You play it by striking wooden bars of different lengths with soft mallets, and each bar produces a different musical note. The tubes underneath, called resonators, amplify the sound and give the marimba its distinctive warm, mellow tone.

The marimba originated in Africa and was brought to Central America centuries ago, where it became especially popular in Guatemala and Mexico. Today, marimbas appear in orchestras, jazz bands, and solo performances around the world. Professional marimbas can be enormous, spanning several octaves and requiring the player to move quickly across the instrument, sometimes using four mallets at once (two in each hand) to play complex chords and melodies.

The marimba belongs to the percussion family of instruments, which includes drums, cymbals, and any instrument you strike to make sound. Its gentle, resonant tones make it perfect for both delicate, flowing melodies and energetic, rhythmic pieces. If you've ever heard music that sounds like wooden bells playing a tune, you might have been listening to a marimba.