Joe Veltri was totally brave when I asked who wanted to play duo with violinist Diane Monroe at the 2010 Univ. of Delaware workshop. He volunteered. I think he does a good job for a difficult task.

I pick it up in the middle of the tune. 'He's playing There Will Never Be another you'.

The idea was to give them a chance of playing in a duo that was baseless and see what that's like. This is after I played a couple tunes with Diane. We practice hard and I've worked hard at this combination of instruments and trying to make it sound as well as I can!

Well according to Joe the mallets actually make you play better. hmmmmm.

With these workshops, I've taken a little break from posting lessons. Mainly because I'm away from my studio. But I'm home Sunday and next week we'll get back to work!

I've really had a great time here in Delaware and also in Ireland. Man we are building something great here and it's showing. Vibe players from around the world are coming to hang out and to play and to study. It's really fun to be in the same place as a bunch of other vibe players for several days. It's a lot of vibe talk!

This is my 'weapon of choice' at the moment. A Hungarian hammered dulcimer- the Cimbalom. I got it in February and have been practicing like nothing else!

If it interests you I have attached a chart of how it's tuned- it's all over the shop!

I'm planning to get good at improvising on it and start a manouche band...

H'enjoy!
Andre

The Mallet Kat is an incredible instrument and it makes the pit musician's life much simple. But what about doubles for the show. Now that the percussionist didn't have to drag in timpani, does he still get his doubling fees for playing Xlyo and Timp?