James Whiting posted a real pretty piece where he manually rotated the fan blades. Dr. Bob commented that he would like a crank on the side to override the motor and have the blades pop back to the open position. That made me wonder what I could make from things around the house to do that. Here is the result. I used a 7.5" Jumbo Rubber Band, Spring-type door stopper, shim, and a quick clamp. I screwed the door stopper into the shim and clamped it to the vibes. I replaced the original belt with the rubber band, gave it a twist so it would stay around the door stop.

Twitter is one of those web apps where it's kind of hard to find some meaning and usefulness. I always feel a little vain when I Tweet. But I recently found a good use for it especially if you don't mind sifting through some stuff.

Put in Coltrane or Milt or Hindemith (like I did) in the search box and search through this gigantic database of 140 character tweets (as they say). I found out some websites, some great cds and a few facts about Hindemith.

I'm starting to think that it's a really great tool for getting info.

Hi Guys,

Decided to do a quick recording of this really nice tune I found last week, I know its a little bit sketchy - but I guess leaves more room for comment. Thoughts, comments, feedback would be greatly appreciated. Apologies for this not being a video.

For those who know compositions of sam rivers they are often "out" so this is a nice little "in" tune with a short form, nice harmony and modal interchange.

Thanks,

James

Vibesworkshop.com would like to announce a workshop:

Click here and use this form for registration

Send Workshop Payments to:
Tony Miceli
906 East Passyunk Ave.
Philadelphia PA, 19147

The vibes workshop will feature master classes by Joe Locke, Tony Miceli, Mike Pinto and Dana Sudborough.

When: August 15th and 16th
(Online Vibe Hang On August 16th at the end of the workshop)

August 14th I'll make a few slots available for private lessons. First Come First Serve Basis. Lessons are free for subscribers of 3 months or more. (Order determined by when fee is paid)

Where: University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA

Time: Roughly 10am to 5 or 6pm

Teacher: Tony Miceli

Price: $125 a day for members Members will receive 2 months free subscription
$75 a day for subscribers (paid in advance)
$50 a day for college and high school students who are subscribers (paid in advance)

There will be bass and drums for all or part of the day and we'll probably wind up the second day with a vibe hang online performance.

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I'll check some hotel prices out over the next couple days. Everyone says to use priceline.com, that because of the recession you can get hotels very cheap.

If you want to keep track of this post, just make a comment even if it just says keeping track. Then when I update it I'll post a comment and you'll be notified.

Back when I played my company's holiday party, the clamp that holds the legs on my 1959 Deagan 580 snapped. I tried fabricating one, but it didn't work out. I emailed Gilberto Serna at Century Mallet. He had them in stock, for only $5.00 each! I ordered two. Received them quickly.

http://www.centurymallet.com/

Barry

Work towards lines that make sense. Simple lines.

I always like that progression and I'm not a theory guy, but I have my version on why it works and what it's about. I was actually going to make podcast about it, but I thought instead I'd open it up for discussion first.

What do you think about that progression? Why is it you can slip in a C#dim in between a repeating dominant chord??

I'll leave it at that.

Everybody by now must know about Pandora. What a great web-app.

I've been using it lately to get myself in a vibe. I've felt a little stale about my voicings and things, so I created a Hindemith radio channel and have been listening to that, focusing on it and also as I do other things.

Here's a long podcast on the tune Solar and ways to develop the harmony and to create lines over the altered dominant chords.

You know to do lessons like this and then try to play decently is really tough. So make sure you know the tune solar before you listen to this. I don't fully name all the chords, just because I'm trying to stay in the 'zone' and that's making it a little difficult for me to use labels and chord symbols. You'll see what I mean. But if you know the tune and go slow through this lesson, I think you'll get what it is I'm trying to get across.

So the M-48 has a big flaw. Those rails you take off bend down. then the notes don't dampen evenly or even well.

So Nico is making me a new keybed for the M-48. Then I'll have a great instrument. The keybed will fit on top of my M-48 legs. Is that cool?? Only Nico could do this!

Then my next step is to save more money and get him to make me a set of bars that will replace my Musser bars!

I also have an old M-55 and the legs are bent. So he's making me replacement legs for the M-55 which will make it sturdy again.