Brooks Elementary students took a worldwide musical tour Friday without leaving their Aurora school's gymnasium.

The Marimbaman, David Hall, guided their trip using a variety of marimbas to perform musical selections from South America, Mexico, Africa, Japan and Germany.

The marimba is a percussion instrument that produces different tones when its wooden keys are struck by as many as four small mallets at once.

Hall told students marimba bands are especially popular in Guatemala, where they are the national symbol of culture, but also are strongly established in southern and central Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

"I know it looks like just a pile of wood with pipes hanging underneath, but so many cultures have been making beautiful music with it for centuries," he said.

He invited several youngsters to make music with him using his marimbas and other percussion instruments.

One of his assistants, Abbey Malbon, particularly enjoyed the Balaton, a marimba Hall brought back from Gambia.

"It's cool that the music is made from gourds underneath," she said. "It's a pretty sound."

A percussionist with the Grand Rapids Symphony since 1987, Hall takes his show on the road to schools, parks, retirement homes and anywhere else he can spread his love for his favorite instrument.

"You ask most people about a marimba and they think you're talking about a piece of fruit," said Hall, winner of the 1998 Leigh Howard Stevens International Marimba Competition. "But I was introduced to it more than 20 years ago and fell in love with it. I ate marimba for breakfast, lunch and dinner, so now I want to share my passion with others so they don't think a marimba is a fruit."