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During the pandemic, one of the first things I did was to revisit a textbook that was deeply meaningful to me when I was in college.   To be accurate, it is a translation, not the original, but I don't speak or read German so it has to do.   I am referring to Hindemith's two volumes of "The Craft of Musical Composition".

hey Tony,

Happy Birthday!! Yeah I know, not yet for you, but here in Europe it is! ?

Man, it's been a while. Finally managed to get that rock I was hiding under off of me ? ...  Been checking some of the latest stuff. Still going strong here! I hope I can again find the time to stay more in touch with you guys! 

I made a cool play along and made a sort of etude. It's a chance for you guys to play over 2 simple chords and play some 4 mallet stuff and some lines. I will make a video and talk about the etude very soon. 

But play this, learn this. Play along with me, and then use this stuff on your own. I use neighbor tones, bridges between whole steps. I.E. D Db C. If this was over a Dmin7 the important notes would be D and C and the bridge between them would be Db. Get it????

I just bought a Modern Jazz Quartet album at a flea market with Milt Jackson's autograph! This adds to my collection of autographs, including: Lionel Hampton, Gary Burton, Tony Miceli, Behn Gillece, and Oliver Mayman.

Barry

I love listening to guitar players play solo. I can usually imagine playing like that on the vibes. Their approach really lends itself to the vibraphone. 

Watch and study this video and try playing like this on the vibes. There's a line then a chord. If the line is quarter notes, you can play chords through it, but if you're going to play a busy line then no chord, it's too difficult. Get it??? 

Friedman #19: https://youtu.be/u0TEI7Zd4Lc

Green Dolphin Street on Piano: https://youtu.be/8UNESNrmJg4 

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.