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Hi Everyone,

I've been trying to work on my solo playing. I'm starting to get more comfortable accompanying myself. I find the hardest thing is to keep a line going and not have the chords interrupt the flow. I can play through changes fairly well unaccompanied without chords. But now I find my left hand is always going for a chord.

My pick is Gary Burton - Alone at Last

What's yours? Only one and you can of course talk about why.

For me the solo playing on this CD is unmatched to this day. I heard it when I was young and it blew me away.

Your turn.

HEY GUYS, I think it's great to include you all in some way. So I'll post questions and hopefully you guys will answer. I'll provide links to this stuff for the attendees when it gets close to the workshop.

What is a specific exercise someone can do to work on improvising. Be specific and short. You can link to something here that helped you of course.

Any Ideas?

I envision this site as a platform for discussion, i.e. an exchange of opinions, sharing ideas verbal and musical and being open for giving and receiving suggestions and constructive criticism. After submitting my version of "You don't know what love is" I asked for comments about what I changed harmonically. I was really looking forward to some interesting feedback. I wanted, as I mentioned to Tarik, to go beyond personal taste, "I like this", I don't like this", etc. (Although sometimes I could handle a bit more of "I don't like this", in a constructive way, of course).

So I'm giving the Mallet Improv workshop this year at PASIC. And so I thought!!!

I would like to get you guys to chip in. Open source the talk!

So give me some tips you found valuable for learning improv. Some commentary? Advice? What should young mallet players work on? Think about? etc.

I will also refer to this post in the notes and make this available for everyone at PASIC

Here is the chart for my version of "You Don't Know What Love Is," in case anyone is interested in having a look...
it was written mostly on piano. (the recording is "Connections, Volume Two: The Anthony Smith Quartet")

-Anthony

I was listening to some older Milt tracks and came across a version of Bags' Groove with one of my favorite solos, which I remember I had transcribed when I was about 18 years old. Fortunately, I still have this book of transcriptions so I wanted to share it.

The album is called "Wizard of the Vibes" (2001 Rudy van Gelder remaster). But this track has appeared on other releases. It is one of the classic versions of Bags' Groove. I suggest you seek out the recording, because the notes are only one aspect of this - the FEEL is what it is all about.