We started recording our new Monkadelphia CD the other night. At least I think we'll make a cd. We wanted to go into the studio and record and see what happened. We did one rehearsal, hadn't played together for about 2 years. I dig it.

I'll sneak in a track here. All rough mixes. The studio is called Forge and my buddy Victor Baker is going to Engineer the late shift and do affordable sessions for musicians in the area.

The tune is the Monk tune Humph. It's rhythm changes but the A section chords are

2 beats each ->F#7 B7 E7 A7 D7 G7 C7 F7 then Bb for the rest.

An excerpt from a concert we did at a local community college.

For more info on Trio Montuno visit:
http://www.triomontuno.com

Man, I started messing with Dana's Videos, the Mark Levine book and bam, 3 hours later I'm flipping out cause I wanted to hit the sack early tonight.

I think I'm getting it. It's about the 2 outside lines and then how you harmonize THRU a chord.

First the outside line. If you play closed you usually have thirds in the top. Now you move that second voice and you have 10ths. Instead of seconds you have ninths. It's a beautiful sound. More open and spacious.

Maybe this is what is needed to make vibes/marimba more popular ? Dig the showmanship of the bass player (lol)

Made me smile for about 3 seconds....now for something completely different!

I think we've all fallen in love with Joe's tune, 'Sword of Whispers'. I hope you guys all have Joe's CD 'Sticks and Strings'. It's a beautiful CD. Guitar and Vibes were made for each other, and if you didn't know that, this CD will show you. The playing is phenomenal.

I asked Joe if I could write up an arrangement on his tune 'Sword of Whispers' and post it here for subscribers. Joe graciously agreed. So here it is.

I'm also working up a solo version. This tune is so fun to play!

Whoa!

I couldn't wait for Tony's etude so I started working with the Sword of Whispers lead sheet on Joe's site. This is a demo recording to put down some ideas. I was mainly trying to get the notes and some harmonies. I need major work on my rhythm. I tried playing along with http://www.metronomeonline.com/ but it only can help so much.

Anyway, you know where the Stop button is.

Barry

I am curious how many players put bass in the right channel vs. the left channel. How many don't care either way. Having played keyboard forever, I feel bass should go on the left, but I hear many (most) other vibes panned the other way.

I've heard that a reason to pan bass to the right would be for an audience perspective but, especially for lessons, it would make sense to me to pan for the player's perspective, i.e., bass on left.

Barry