The Mini Glockenspiel Layla Clark Used to Practice AC/DC’s ‘Thunderstruck’
Before Layla Clark played the opening of AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” on a football field, she spent hours working through the same notes at home. Her practice instrument was a mini glockenspiel. The bars were so small that moving back to the regular instrument felt easier, her mother, Christine Clark, said.
Christine described the routine in an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Layla did much of the work for “Thunderstruck” at home, where the smaller instrument demanded careful placement. On a compact keyboard, the mallets have less room for error. The notes of the riff still have to arrive at the same pace.
Layla told CBS Pittsburgh the part took her a long time to learn and that she still didn’t consider it perfect. That’s a useful detail to keep in mind when watching the close-up. The opening sounds fluent, but each pass through the pattern still asks her hands to make a series of precise strikes.
The field recording came from the Thomas Jefferson High School marching band’s 2025 season. Clark plays the part associated with Angus Young’s guitar on the marimba, with other mallet players in the arrangement. She is closest to the camera, which gives viewers a clear look at the work of moving between the bars.
The control was one of the first things viewers singled out. A comment praising her hand-eye coordination had about 2,900 likes on November 6. Christine’s account explains one part of how Layla prepared for the passage those viewers were noticing.
When the opening starts, listen to how evenly the notes come out, then watch where the mallets land. A pattern a rock audience can recognize in seconds took hours of practice on a much smaller instrument.
Layla Clark at her school marimba
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s video shows Clark with the marimba at Thomas Jefferson High School. It offers a look at the full-size instrument she returned to after practicing on the smaller glockenspiel at home.
What changes when the riff leaves the guitar
The original recording puts the line out in the open, where its timing is easy to hear. In the school performance, each note has a clear strike as the mallet hits the bar. The sequence remains familiar even as the sound changes.
The 2CELLOS arrangement sends the same pattern to strings. The three versions make a useful comparison for anyone who first heard the tune on the football field.
