Here are some exercises from my old practice book. I was thinking about accompaniment with lines. I realized that you have to get the left hand sort of automatic and plopping down double stops and that will give the accompaniment feeling. I do it a lot when I'm playing faster tempos.

The pdf is attached below. Also I have an mp3 which is from a midi file where you can hear each exercise.

An incredibly unmusical but important exercise. Start at the bottom of your instrument and play 1 bar of 16th notes on each note. Go all the way up and then all the way down! See how far you can go. When you can do the whole instrument your hands are in good shape.

I'll attach a pdf, but this should be pretty self explanatory.

Ok, when I say the vibes are more like a guitar than a piano, this is what I mean. Check this cat out and think about this. If that was a set of vibes and the same notes came out, can you see how we could totally do that on the vibes. It would fit all the parts he's playing, the concepts, everything.

That's what I mean, as vibe players that's what I think we're going after with 4 mallets. For me the piano implies separation between the hands and the vibes are about integration between the hands.

http://vibesworkshop.com/forums/about-wwwvibesworkshopcom

Check out this part of the forum. If any of you guys dig the school, It would be great for any recommendations you could spare. It's all part of spreading the word so we can get some dollars in here and do cool stuff!

So if any of you feel inclined that would be great.

At one time i knew every MONK tune by heart. I played in a Monk band and over 2 years I had every tune down. 6 months after the band stopped playing, I knew about 1/3 and now, not really any except the ones everybody knows.

This is something we all have to face and as far as I'm concerned there's only one true answer here. Anyone know of any others?

I didn't know this tne untill I heard Tony play it. It's a beautiful tune, so I'll be studying this tune the coming week. I'll post audio at the end of this week.

Here I will post a list of tunes that I really know by heart. Like Tony says, if you really know a tune you've got to be able to play it through 12 keys. So that's my goal here.
I'll only post tunes that I put to the test of playing through 12 keys. So this is gonna be a hard list at first, but think it will get easier when I do this a lot. Let's see what happens.

The list will be below, will be adding the first tunes soon... I hope...

1. tune 1...
2. tune 2...
3. tune 3...
4. tune 4...
5. tune 5...

This is the Milt solo from the alternate take of Don't Get Around Much Anymore. Check my transcription below, it's handwritten, but I think you guys will manage. If you really want a computer written transcription, post that comment here, then I'll do that.

Remember to first try to transcribe the solo yourself, you will get MUCH more out of it that way.

Here's a version of Stella by Starlight I did a long time ago...

Hello Everybody,

Here are some thoughts I'm struggling with as a drummer who has been playing loads of standards on drums and now trying to get to know all of these on vibes.