Here's my arrangement or etude on Chega. Of course inspired by Gary Burton's untouchable version! None the less I thought inspired by his version it might be fun for us to give it a shot.
Pedaling? If it troubles anyone I can think about it but I more less just fluttered the pedal on every beat except for the obvious places.
This was mentioned in the comments so I thought I'd post it as a new post.
How about this? You guys want to post a whole bunch of links here about the subject for others to check out?
This is along the same lines of the video of singing tips that Tony posted. The only difference is that I think this guy is serious. He posts these to a web-site called the expert village
Make sure you watch what notes he's playing!
Check out the Dampening on the Mallet Kat.
im a true believe that the more the student practices ii V I progression and is able to recognize the progression on the fly, this will enable the player to play in most situations. Many times at jam session ive not known the head or did but not not well enough to play with the other players. so ill lay back and listen the the the form first, then the key, and then listen for turnarounds or odd changes, accidentals ect. once i have an idea where it is going ill dive in.
this play along is a cycle i use when practicing the ii V I progression ...
Here is a quick and dirty lesson on "Bubblehouse" by Medeski Martin and Wood from the album "Shack-Man". Stefan had requested more beginner stuff so this is what came to mind. It was a jammy-jam type of song that was popular when I was a tween in college. It was one of the first songs I heard and said "I can play that" and just walked over to the vibes and started banging it out. I busted it it out a few times when stuck jamming with rocker guitarists/bassists who don't know any songs. "Ok just play G minor.... :)"
Here's all the lessons and performances of Ed Saindon's tune 'Life's Blessings.
We spent the month of March studying Ed's tune and we had a blast. Check out all the comments. There's a lot of valuable information here.
Here are seven choruses of improvisation on the progression of Life's Blessing.
Again, as I mentioned in the other video playing the melody, the left hand is functioning as accompaniment as well as helping out the right hand to execute lines.
Try to fill out the 8th notes between both hands as opposed to trying to carry everything with the right hand. Also, try to keep the left hand moving. Try to keep changing the spreads of the mallets in each hand as much as possible. For example, in left hand, you can play a whole step and then invert that interval to play a 7th.
Two choruses playing the melody along with the accompaniment.
Feel free to change the rhythms of the melody and try to embellish the melody with grace notes, passing notes, fills, etc.
In terms of the accompaniment, try to get the harmony (including tensions) across either with voicings or counterpoint.
Try to get both hands to help each other out. The left hand can come up to help the right hand play the melody and the right hand can go down to fill out a voicing along with the left hand. Also, dampening is important when playing counterpoint against the melody.