all-levels

Hi VW friends,

Here is a gig video I shot by putting my iPhone next to me during the set. See what you think of this mash-up of Duke & Paul, two of my favorites.

(ps. someone else shot some good video of this gig, so maybe I will get some more to post in the future...)

Steve

This piece is the 1st movement from Bach's violin sonata # 1. There's lots of opportunity for mallet dampening. The goal is to get it to sound full and resonant, but very clean. As you move from chord to chord use good dampening and/or pedaling to make sure no notes from the previous chord ring into the current chord; making it sound sloppy.

The tempo is really slow, with an 8th note set to about 50 on the metronome. A pdf of the manuscript is included HERE

Hello guys, I just created a new YouTube channel to post some clips for marimba. We just posted clips on marimba of Duke Ellington's blues Things Ain't What They Used To Be and Carlos Jobim's O Grande Amor. I'll be posting some more clips including Clapton's Tears in Heaven, Morricone's theme from Cinema Paradiso and an excerpt from Bach's Sonatas and Partitas that I improvise on. The marimba is such a beautiful instrument. I'd like to put some more marimba clips out there that show other possibilities for the marimba that I don't think the marimbists are taking advantage of.

Hello guys, I just created a new YouTube channel to post some clips for marimba. We just posted clips on marimba of Duke Ellington's blues Things Ain't What They Used To Be and Carlos Jobim's O Grande Amor. I'll be posting some more clips including Clapton's Tears in Heaven, Morricone's theme from Cinema Paradiso and an excerpt from Bach's Sonatas and Partitas that I improvise on. The marimba is such a beautiful instrument. I'd like to put some more marimba clips out there that show other possibilities for the marimba that I don't think the marimbists are taking advantage of.

Looking for a good set of mallets for a big band. I was looking at maybe the Joe Locke quickflies, (mike balter 47r), any suggestions?

I came across this Bill Evans clip yesterday and it made me think about the discussion of this tune a while back. I think it was on this site that someone said they thought this tune was best as a ballad, especially given the dark tone of the movie. But I actually feel that when a composition is being interpreted, it is fine to treat it purely as music and not worry about any of that. The whole point is to do something more personal with it.. This tune can be a beautiful ballad, but a lot of guys like to swing on it (check out the Frisell and Sco versions linked below as well).

I know there was a streaming of the concert from the Delaware workshop, but is it actually recorded that i could watch it somewhere?

Hey guys, I jus ran across a post by Tony called Think Like a Drummer. Great post that I think has varying views and open for discussion. I entered Berklee way back as a drummer (was a Buddy Rich fanatic) and was lucky enough to study with the great Alan Dawson. I saw Gary play with the Mike Gibbs big band at a school concert. Had never seen the vibes before. Gary did a short solo on Keith Jarrett's Grow Your Own and that was one of those "wow" moments for me. Took up vibes starting with a beginning mallet class with Gary. Talk about being fortunate.

I've just finished reading British Jazzer Ronnie Scott's book, Lets Join Hands And Contact The Living, its a great read, all about his life and his famous Jazz Club and some of the great musicians who played there. Well worth reading. I have also added a link of him playing with The Victor Feldman Trio, two amazing musicians, Scott was an immensely talented player and played with some of the greatest jazz musicians on the planet, so enjoy.

For this month's "chords and harmony" topic I've written up an article focusing on tensions and several ways to use them effectively when comping. Some of the areas discussed include:

• using tensions to indicate major or minor tonal center
• available tensions for maj7, min7, min7(b5), dom7, and dim7 chords
• adding tensions to a blues progression

Hope you find it helpful.