Etudes

This is a solo vibe piece Tony Miceli commissioned me to write for him. Let me know what you guys think! These are the program notes I wrote for the piece:

This piece was written in April of 2024 upon commission from Tony Miceli, professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. While taking private lessons with him, we began experimenting with timbral effects on the vibraphone, and one of my assignments was to write a solo vibraphone piece surrounding this idea. Thus, this piece was born.

In this etude, the quarter note remains consistent like an actual walking bass line. The challenge in this exercise is to keep the pedal down and the dampening smooth, making sure no notes ring together. Work on getting a really nice legato sound!

Check out the attached PDF!

In this exercise, the line is a little closer to a walking bass line with quarter notes. Keep the notes legato, and shoot for keeping the pedal down as much as possible with clean dampening in between the notes. Check out the attached PDF!

Hi everyone!

I'm doing a short series on dampening. In these etudes, we're using walking bass lines as a way to work on dampening. Most of these exercises are pretty simple, and a lot of fun! Try them out and see how well you can keep a legato feel throughout. And of course, check out the attached PDF! 😀

I made this with a bass and percussion. I think it's 'groovy'. 
 

It's focusing on one chord, and that's C7. Check it out and Try and play it. I have the groove at 2 tempos a slow one and a faster one. 

And then.... a slow one in F in case any of you guys want to try and transpose it. To the first person, who makes a video of them playing it in C and F, I'll give to free lessons. OFF EXPIRES JULY 1 2024

Get to work! 

I am making some Tik Tok MalletKat videos for Alternate mode. (The Malletkat is the pro model of electronic keyboard percussion). So I decided to play some tunes and then I thought I'll notate them as an etude for all of you. 

Can you play it? I left out the pedal markings? Why? Because they are a pain to notate partly. And partly because you can listen to the pedaling of the track and study that and then at the pedaling yourself. I think it's really important to not have it all handed to you. That's too easy. 

I love the tune Recado Bossa Nova. My fav part is the Eb to A. What a cool sound. 

I wrote a very detailed (for me) etude with sticking. So you can really see how I think of things. I try to take a very minimalist approach to the vibes (most of the time). 

Notice how the harmony works and there is not a lot of chords. I think this works as a solo piece which means you don't need a lot of notes and chords for a solo piece. 

Here's an etude on the tune I Could Write A Book. Chord melody and solo. 

I wrote in the chords for the first time through the tune. You write the rest in and look at the alterations of the chords! 

Check out the audio to see what it's supposed to sound like. I'd love to see you post your version!

The vibe sample is from the company Orange Tree. And if you know who Ed Smith is, it's his vibes and mallets. Sound great! 

Here's another one of my etudes. A great tune 'The Touch Of Your Lips'.

It's the head and then one chorus of some four mallet stuff. 

Your Job is to put the changes in, study the music and write in all the alterations. I.E. if it's Bb7 look at the music. Am I playing a b9 well know it's Bb7b9

You should be able to play it by yourself and make it swing.