Vibraphone

Hi vibes friends,
In this lesson I'm going to show you an easy and effective method to harmonize the melody of "Georgia on my Mind".
Make sure to download the pdf before watching the video.

Your homework is to use the same method to harmonize the B section of the standard (there's is a free staff for you to complete in the worksheet)

“Shuffle Vibe Blues” – a fun little song that I composed to play with a left-hand shuffle feel. It’s an AAB form with the A section being a 12 bar blues. It's a bit reminiscent of something the late great Dr. John (Mac Rebennack) would play. I enjoy his music and was listening to some of his songs recently. Gary Burton had told me about Dr. John when I was studying with Gary in the 70s.

Finally was able to play it by ear in 12 keys, thru circle of 4ths. Great exercise!
Next I want to do it in Harmonic Minor. I am teaching myself to hear chord qualities, like the ii7(b5) and minor(Maj7).

Can You Do This?

Balafon to Vibraphone: a unique path to new ideas

I wanted to share some thoughts about my balafon lessons and how they might connect to your primary instrument: vibes, marimba, piano, etc.

Playing a solo vibraphone version of a new composition titled "Minor Haven". The lead sheet can be downloaded via the link in the video description.

I am not able to play two times exactly the same and with the same attack, but I hope you can get a feeling of the sound.
It was a simple recording using ZOOM H4n on both foldable suitcase frames in my workshop.

The "short" story.

I'm kind of regurgitating these old articles and things I did when I was more involved in the music scene but I'll have new stuff soon. I think these articles are pretty good and I wrote them when I was doing a lot of teaching. This article uses drumming as the instrument but the method works for vibe too.