Here is a blues article I wrote many years ago. It's a different approach than what I learned at Berklee which I believe caused me to overthink the blues. I taught it quite successfully to many students so if you're starting out or struggling to express in the blues form and style, give this method a go. Once this basic idea of the blues is in your ears and hands, it's much easier to add more sophisticated things on top of it.

Don't always look for reasons and explanations as to why to do something.

But I can take most of the tunes I know and play 3rds and 7ths only. Can you?

I used to really check out anything a great player could do and then I would do it. I didn't give a flying %$%$ why or what or harmonically this or that. I just saw they were doing it and I wasn't and couldn't. I figured if I was great then I could do it. That was my why to do it. Get it?

Who is Gene Estes?

I saw this title of his record and knew nothing about him and just thought I'd buy it for the arrogance of his title. I've started to listen to it and man he sounds good so far! Serious cat!

Do you guys know about him? There's no recording of this on Youtube. And I think no cds, only this old record I found.

Tell me about Gene Estes.

I downloaded a lead sheet last night and started learning this.

This morning I've been trying to learn/practice it in different tempos; I'll upload two of those tempos here. While it was fairly quick to learn, the challenge for me is the swing, the feel. And really locking in the time. So I'll keep working on it!

This first video is of the slightly faster tempo. I'll load the slower one next...

Obviously, work to do. Onward!

Balafon to Vibraphone: a unique path to new ideas

I wanted to share some thoughts about my balafon lessons and how they might connect to your primary instrument: vibes, marimba, piano, etc.

A beautiful bossa composed by Luiz Bonfá, featuring my newly designed leather mallets.

Thanks Tristan, for the tips. I played around with them today. I play the head and then twice through the tune with quarters.

My goals for this practice:

*Simplify the accompaniment.
*Easy on the pedal.
*Stick to ONLY quarter notes on the solo section.

I slowed this down a bit more because I wanted to try and make some changes without feeling like the time was going by faster than my brain was working.