To be honest this was an interesting podcast for me to make. Take a look at Dan Gorlin. He does not look like an expert on West African music, particularly the music from Ghana. But he really knows his stuff and has been studying, playing and teaching this music for 30 years now.

If that wasn't enough, I've heard from two great Philly musicians about him, and he definitely knows his stuff.

Besides that, just spending the night with him showed me how much passion (and knowledge) he has for this music and for teaching it. This is a 2 part series, definitely worth watching.

Recording of today's sight reading etude with the pedal down throughout using dampening.

Link to etude: http://www.vibesworkshop.com/story/sight-reading-exercise-each-day-shap…

Recording of today's sight reading etude with no dampening.

Attached are the complete drawings to accompany the video on MBraces also available at www.VibesWorkshop.com

If you have a drill press and a few hand tools, this attachment has all the information you need to build your own MBraces (most new manufacturers already have this type of bracing on their instruments - though not this quality).

NOTE: The vender information listed here is also excellent information to have on hand if you own a "Piper Vibe".

Here's a tough mental challenge.

Hey Tony,

I told you about the theater show I'm gonna do from January untill april, right?

Anyway, I got all the music and it's about 42 pages of music that I have to play by heart... and it's drums, Vibes AND marimba. The composer is this famous dutch classical composer and the music is really Heavy Metal Reggae stuff and also classical combined... I looked through the parts this week and man, it's some difficult stuff!
The vibe parts are ok, cause that's mainly beautiful sounds and stuff like that. But the marimba parts are some fast mo' fo' passages(excuse my language... haha).

Hey everyone.... This is my first blog on Tony's site and wow what an honor to be in such company as Tony, John, so many heavy hitters... very nice

Anyways. in the past couple months my life has been so hectic working working working that i have barely any time to play my vibes, which at first drove be completely insane. However, what i have found in the process i would like to share with you ...What i have found in my time away from play the vibes is alot of ear training, listening, and mental practicing.

Hey Tony,

This is a recording of Rainbow I made this morning while practicing that includes the turnaround and some more ideas related to the inner lines we discussed before.

I'm still working on it in G so this one is in Eb.

Sidenote: I'm picking up a better microphone this week from my parents house so hopefully the sound quality will improve and be louder.

Jon

Recording of today's sight reading etude using dampening with the pedal down throughout.

Note: The click is on each eighth note since I couldn't get the metronome to be slow enough for each quarter note.

Recording of today's sight reading etude without dampening.