Vibraphone

Here is week 1 for the Practice Club. I really enjoyed working on this etude. It allowed me to work on my reading and learn some new voicing’s that I can now start implementing into my playing. Then taking those voicing’s and putting them through the keys.

Comping has never been my strong suit but I’m hoping that working through these rootless voicing lessons for the next few weeks is going to help. Let me know what you think!

This is Giant Steps stuff!

Here is my new travel vibraphone.
Now I finally get no more trouble with the cottage neighbors or my wife.

As my summer toy doesn't create a great sound I have taken the wonderful recording from Maciej Afanasjew for background. I love the sound of the bass vibraphone.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHqtlA3E_0g)

Check out Gene. Great vibe player, lived in LA and played with everyone out there! Great Drummer!

If you know anything about Gene Estes please share it!

Click here for more info
Soft, quiet, but articulate

Super soft, nearly silent, slurring articulation

remember this for the most part it is:

scale tone above, half step below.

C7 would be D B C F Eb E A Gb G C A Bb

For some reason this etude is especially challenging for me. If I went a little faster, then you can hear the dampening mallet almost ring. I tried using harder and softer mallets and these worked the best. I tried to keep the dampening mallet quiet and still feel and express the song.
To get it to this point, believe it or not, I practiced it a LOT. It is elegant and there's nowhere to hide! You can hear everything.

I've told this story a million times. So sorry if you heard it before.

When my 1st wife was pregnant she came home and said so many woman were pregnant at the save time. I said I bet it's not any more than usual however you are pregnant and now you're seeing all these other pregnant women. We got into a big fight!

The point is, sometimes just doing stuff will pay off later.

Practice dividing the octave up into 3 parts and don't worry about why. I can do it very easily and if you can't then you should so we both can do it, think about it and talk about it.

Larry Mckenna as some of you know was my teacher when I was young and in college.

He is such a pure musician. He really taught to think about all the extra crap we add. I know I still add it, but hopefully because of him I add a lot less.