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So.....

I thought it would interesting to try something out next year. A workshop in the mountains of France (Near the Alps) and one in Napa Valley at a Vineyard.

Why? Because there are vibe players there and they are willing to host us and help us. I think upping the game of workshops brings more visibility to the instrument. We have our steady places, Limerick, Ireland and Wuppertal, Germany. These are homes for us, but it would be nice to branch out and spread the word. Also, do some workshops in some cool places around the world.

#MalletMonday This is MB Gordy's custom mallet and stick case. This picture always drops our jaws. #TeamBalter #Music #Recording #Percussion pic.twitter.com/MMlR8STbCv

A note regarding the vibes in the sixties.

The link above is to the only live footage I can find of the Tim Hardin band that played on the live Tim Hardin 3 concert. You'll see that in the opening and closing shots, Mike Mainieri plays the vibes as he did on the original album.

Vibraphone: instrument used to make music by converting the vibration of tuned metal bars into an electrical signal, 1969 #musicMW pic.twitter.com/PHZEOdEv23

— #SciTechMuseum (@SciTechMuseum) June 21, 2017

20% Off of Beiner Bag Cases for the Next 30 days.
Grant Beiner makes great cases! He's a percussionist so he knows what we need! I asked Grant for a very good discount for Vibeworkshop members and he offered 20%.

Here's the thing:

I've decided to move the Philly workshop to my home.

I'm planning a great week from July 10-14 (I can even do something on the 9th If people come in early)

It's really getting impossible to do independent workshops at Universities unless you're bringing in 100 students. The red tape, background checks etc., forms are unbelievable! You need a team of 2 or 3 people to pull all this off.

Back in the mid-1980's I started using pencil grips on my mallets. I was obsessed with finding and eliminating every little thing that contributed to extraneous noise on the vibraphone. As I became a little more known for my "Vibraphonics", I got an endorsement opportunity with Michael Balter to make the John Piper Mallet. I sent him pencil grips and told him the mallets have to include the orange ones (see photo) because for some unknown reason, the orange ones have a better feel and longer lasting quality.

The idea of the MBraces was created WAY back in the 80's when I first started working on my M55 vibraphone for improvements. I discovered (with the use of two cymbal stands) that by placing two braces from near middle of the pedal rail to the sides of the leg frames, the results were fantastic for stability. Very simple but they are the braces that were missing on all previous designs of the instrument! Many people had secondary braces added to their instruments but for some reason, no one was doing the obvious. In the L.A.

Recent posts got me interested in experimenting with resonators.
https://www.vibesworkshop.com/video-embed/omega-vibraphone-vibrato-syst…
https://www.vibesworkshop.com/blog-entry/motor/tonymiceli/051717

This blog is my repository of my experiments. Comments welcome.

Do people like us still make CD's? Is there a point to doing that? I'm curious because things have changed so much since I was active in it full time. What is the standard media product for artists like us? Recordings have pretty much become "business cards" and give-aways. I'd love to hear the full scope of what seems cool and purposeful to the upcoming class of musicians and the established ones.