Before the length of the bar for a desired fundamental has been calculated, however, consideration must be made for the shape of the bar. By cutting an arch-shaped indention into the bottom of the bar, the overall stiffness of the vibrating system is reduced, producing a lower frequency. In this way, a cut bar, identical in length to a perfectly rectangular one, sounds a much lower pitch, bringing the lower bars of the marimba to a much more practical size.

Therefore, when designing a marimba bar, after calculating the length necessary to produce the desired pitch in a uniformly shaped bar, one must make two considerations: first, where and how much wood will be removed from the base. This factor which will greatly affect the amount of reduction in the overall length of the bar . The other consideration, tuning the bar to approximately one semitone above its desired pitch in anticipation of future modification, leads us into the next aspect of the science of the marimba: tuning.

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