Drumstick Mallets

A percussion mallet or beater is an object used to strike or beat a percussion instrument in order to produce its sound.

The term beater is slightly more general. A mallet is normally held in the hand while a beater may be foot or mechanically operated, for example in a bass drum pedal. The term drum stick is less general still, but still applied to a wide range of beaters. Some mallets, such as a triangle beater, are normally used only with a specific instrument, while others are used on many different instruments. Often, mallets of differing material and hardness are used to create different timbres on the same types of instrument (e.g. using either wooden or yarn mallets on a xylophone).