Percussionists are familiar with producing numerous colors and timbres with the variety of instruments at their disposal. Pianists and composers, in the twentieth-century through today, have explored the idea of new timbres by preparing the piano with different objects and materials. Mallet keyboard instruments, specifically marimba and vibraphone, are capable of a similar preparation process to produce new sounds on the instrument. Unfortunately, there is not a popular demand for the practice nor has there ever been a large canon of work for these techniques.

This study aims to highlight works by composers that utilize some of the prepared techniques inspired by prepared piano practices as well as provide an in-depth analysis and preparation guide of my work “Preparatory Blunder” the first movement of Perpetual Inquisitivity (2016), a piece that showcases both the prepared marimba and vibraphone in a soloist setting with instrumental accompaniment. This study uses keys, legends, and musical examples to demonstrate not only how to score for prepared marimba and vibraphone, but also discuss how to prepare the instruments without damaging them.