Steve Weiss is an old friend of mine. And I've bought quite a few sets of vibes from him over the years. I think he's done a lot for the percussion world by creating the largest percussion store in the world. He's a great, crazy guy that many of us percussionists, vibe players, marimba players around the world really appreciate. So I wrote a percussion piece and named it after him! He definitely is Weiss Guy!

Hey guys. Saturday, December 8th, 12pm I'm doing a vibe hang at my house for a couple of my U Arts Students. Behn Gillece is coming by as well. If any of you are around and want to come hang, then come over. Email me for more info.

I'm going to set up the instruments and we're going to do some duo playing. Probably from 12-2

Walked by a nice piano today. Had to play it.

I just wanted to make you look. Soft mallets don't suck. Well not all the time.

I saw a great student of mine play recently. He's a great up and coming vibe player I think. I was listening to him comp and could hear nothing. I know he could hear the instrument, I get that. If HE couldn't hear the instrument and he was comping (with soft mallets) then that's not cool. But I'm sure he could.

Let me know what you think. This is my final for lessons with Tony @ UArts

So I've almost finished producing a CD, now what do I do?

I have no delusions of grandeur here, but I do want it to be "out there" and available. Our major goals in producing this CD were to expand our musical capabilities (already accomplished :-)), and maybe get more/better gigs.

Ok, here's two easy etudes over the tune Just In Time.

Play through the chords then listen to this solo. Make sure the tune is in your head! You should hear the tune easily in the lines. I wrote the chords in on the chord etude. You write them in on the Solo etude. Play the etudes. Can you learn anything from playing them? Can you see how the lines fit in with the harmony? How in the line you can hear the harmony?

A small taster of our performance at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin recently. Piano is a bit low as it was not mic'd but sound is ok. Enjoy

John

Hey,

My try on Bags groove. Audio is not really great. I put the mic in the livingroom, started the playalong tape, and.... played along.
I think it's suposed to be 12 bar blues, but I skipped that for now, I just played the melody and tried to do som soloing.

Greetz,
Stefan