Mallets, I think, are the best for small tenors. But the bottom line is: Use what your school purchases. Obviously, your instructor order what he did for a reason, so live with it. If it is your choice, however, I would get the Vic Firth Tom Aungst Hybrid. It is probably the best tenor implement on the market (It's a mallet and a sticks, so would it be a malick?). And this comes from a tenor player whose user name shows he prefers Innovative Percussion.

I used the Hardimon tenor sticks and Vegas in high school. I absoulutely hated the Hardimons, but I liked the Vegas. MT1As are always good but not for certain styles of music. I used the McNutt snare sticks in college and at Madison, along with the MT4As. The McNutts feel really good on quads.

My new favorite is the Aungst tenor hybrid (go figure right?). It's a well balanced stick with a lot of rebound and still has a full sound. They feel very natural to play with. Playing fast is no problem, and that's why the qb gave them the nickname, "weasels." Feel free to use the nickname at will.

i prefer
Innovative Percussion:
FT-1s or FT-1AH depending on whether your line uses wood or aluminum shaft.

then theres the FT-2 and FT-2AH if you're looking for a hard felt type sound and, again varying upon whether your line uses wood or aluminum shaft.

I've never heard that.
Isn't the part of the stick where grip similiar to the rubber grip of a mallet, or something?

Yea, It has a fatter part at the end, like the grip on a mallet. In my opinion it looks like an aluminum mallet, made of wood. (No way!) Except for the taper at the end, that reminds me of a vega. It's like, an alloy mallet, made of wood, with a vega taper, and a mallet head. I'm not to hot on it for the looks part, But I hear it plays amazing.

I tend to use the vega's now, simply because I've noticed a lot of corps recently have been using tenor sticks. I personally like mallets a bit better, but If I'm going into corp, and they use tenor sticks, I'm gonna have to use sticks.

Try out those hybrids if you haven't first hand. They work wonders, I've tried vega's too and they just don't do it for me.

....Pro-Mark Ts5's anyone??

I like the Pro-Mark System Blue Vegas.

The VF Hybrids are fantastic -- a great compromise between a mallet and a stick.

I, too, also really like the Pro-Mark Vegas -- I like the feel of the fat grip area and they have a much better sound (imo) than the VF Vegas, which sound "thin" to me, i.e. all articulation, little tone.

Our school uses the MT1A's and i always liked them. then i recently started using the Tom Aungst Hybrids, and i really like them. My only quam and this is because of the switch from the MT1A's, but i end hitting rim shots that i don't mean to. I assume that this is because of the larger cookie on the MT1A. But i do really, really want to try the vega's (but no one sells them here, and shipping is the price of the stick). But yeah the hybrids are a real nice pair of sticks.