The vibraphone is a keyboard percussion instrument, invented around 1920, with tuned metal bars, usually aluminium, laid out like a piano keyboard and struck with soft mallets. A tuned tube hangs below each bar to amplify and sustain its note, and small electrically driven fans at the top of the tubes open and close them, producing the instrument’s characteristic gentle vibrato. A damper pedal, worked with the foot, lets the player hold notes ringing or cut them short. A common range is three octaves upwards from the F below middle C.
Lionel Hampton, Red Norvo and Milt Jackson made the vibraphone a jazz voice, and its glowing, bell-like sustain is ideal for soft chords and slow melodies. In jazz lo-fi sampled or virtual vibraphone lines bring a dreamy, slightly nostalgic shimmer, especially in the calm playlists meant for studying or late-night listening.