A crazy mental exercise in improvisation! This will help your dampening skills as well as your ears and your overall understanding of the instrument.
Hello all,
Just a quick lesson on ending ballads (or any tune, really). I demonstrate a few different options for the final chords on a ballad so you don't always have to end on 1 or the b2. Let me know if there are any questions!
Hey everyone,
Just a little technical exercise I've been working on that has some great applications for using all four mallets in your lines, and for producing a constant arpeggiating effect.
Hello all,
The vibraphone is one of the only instruments we play where you have to work extra hard to control the ending of a note. It requires two separate strokes to play and end any given note with dampening, whereas on, say, the saxophone, you can end a note by simply stopping your air. Thus, it's important to figure out how all this relates to playing the instrument in any context, including in lines, so that you're able to play what you're hearing.
Hey everyone,
Here's another lesson on dampening. This is a subtle topic that relates to how you actually physically press the mallet into the bar when you dampen. You can use varying dampening speed to create clean-sounding dampening, legato-sounding dampening, and everything in between!
Let me know if there are any questions!
-Oliver
Hey everyone,
Very excited about finding this one. Been using it a lot lately. Has anyone ever heard of it? I assume I haven't invented it, but I haven't ever heard of it, either, so I'd be curious to hear if anyone's heard this before.
Let your ears tell you what is happening. Train them to give you information.
I always make a stand along version of tunes I'm learning. How can I play them simply and what would I do to play them like that.
Trying to find ways to play tunes solo. By that I mean concepts and ways to simply play tunes on the vibes and improvise your accompaniment.
This is a pretty tune. I talk about the harmony and moving it around.