Tony wanted me to come over his house to hang, and record the Arabesque that I am working on. Since I don't play vibes with graduated bars as well as non-graduated bars, Tony offered to come my house!

I had a lot of fun. I got to try out a bunch of different mallets and play a tune with Tony on piano with Band-in-a-Box RealTracks bass and drums.

This is with a special thought for Tony, who did a nice version of my buddy's tune (see below)

This is for Phillipe.

He posted the lead sheet for this tune and was hoping some of us would give it a shot. I laid back to see who might tackle this and when nobody did, I tried it.

Here are some etudes based on the tune Beautiful Love.

This etude is simple, but if it's new to you it will open up doors in your playing.

Rotate sticks 1 and 3 and then 2 and 4 with the double stops.

You're harmonizing your solo with one note. It's interesting, I think it's fun to listen to as a listener. You can use this in your comping, soloing, solo playing.

I've spent many an hour playing in this format. It is definitely based on what pianists do with lines and chords. We don't have 10 fingers so this is what we have to work with. It's a cool sound with bass and drums also.

I just finished an online lesson with a student and I thought, hmmm I should pass on the gist of what we were talking about which was if you're playing solo, or doing chord melody things on the vibes, play the melody first and decide how it swings and sounds best, then add the accompaniment around that.

I think I've probably said this many times already, but I thought it was worth passing on to everybody and even starting a discussion.

Here's a good version of etude 26 from Friedman's Dampening and Pedaling.

I am working on "Be Thou With Me" that Ted Wolff posted (above link). This is a work-in-progress.

Did I ever post this??? This is a great lesson by my mentor.

Chinese translation is for Chinese students
有很多Steve的學生問他說怎麼樣才可以增加和弦的詞彙，有些學生甚至會買很多關於和弦的書回家研究，並且想要藉此增加和弦的詞彙，但是Steve認為要用開放的思考模式來想這些和弦詞彙，比如說C大調三和弦一般人會認為這樣的音程關係就會存在C大調的一級和弦中，但是這三個音同時也可以出現在降B調中，分別能為9音也就是C，升11音也就是E, 以及13音也就是G。如果這個和弦只有三個音那就可以比四個音的和弦找到更多可能性，相對的五個音的和弦就更難找到適合的和弦，越多的音久越難找到合適的和弦。例如BCE這三個音，可以用在C大調中也可以用在a小調中或者是D13和弦中，F13和弦，d minor 13。不要覺得一個和弦只能有一個名稱，開放性的思考。現在試著找大三和弦，選一個大三和弦看看哪些和弦能讓這個大三和弦可以使用在其中。