My student Dan Neville turned me on to 'The Mastersounds' the west coast MJQ started by Buddy Montgomery. My student who is a Californian said this to me. They do sound like a version of MJQ and maybe in a way a more aggressive and experimental version? Of course MJQ is great because of Bags and he is the best. But Bobby is SMOOOKIN'!!!!!!

Ashamed to say I didn't know of this. GREAT group! I do have Buddy CDs but no Mastersounds until now.

Just came across some video with Buddy's son? Relative? Not sure. But the video is interesting!!! He talks about the Mastersounds.

I think this is an interesting Buddy Montgomery recording for a couple of reasons. (Scroll down for the video)

First it's swinging!!!!!!!

Next Buddy is using soft mallets. The problem with soft mallets is they make noise on the instrument. I think because they are softer so you hit them louder. On this recording you hear lots of instrument noise.

The decision on what mallets to use is ALWAYS your decision. But it's nice to know the pros and cons when recording.

Guys, I can't wait feb 25th. Recorded that, one shot, this afternoon. Basically my routine. I do that practically every week, in a practice routine.
Hope you enjoy.

Clip just released on the Vic Firth YouTube channel.

Anybody, just curious. Anyone have anything to add? i have more lessons going up.

I wonder what you're thoughts are????

In a lesson this morning, the focus was on solo vibe playing for the song "When You Wish Upon A Star". After the lesson, my student suggested that I record a quick version which illustrated some of the things addressed in the lesson. Here's a quick version that I just recorded on the phone playing one chorus of the melody only.

Here's a simple rootless voicing etude. Listen to it. Do you hear the short and longs? Work them out with the pedal.

Rootless b9 chords are easy to play. They look like a diminished chord. Well they are a diminished chord!

We work on 13th chords in this video. They are diatonic chords. All the notes are in the major scale.
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(Chinese Translation for Chinese students)

我們今天來講“無根音的和聲配置”(Rootless voicing)

以G屬13和弦(G13)為例子
很多funk曲風的曲子，都是用屬和弦(dominant)。
例如屬九和弦、屬十三和弦，mixolydian 音階都可以應用在這兩個和弦上。

第一步驟，先找到適合這個G屬和絃的和聲，然後移到鐵琴的低音域區域，因為這個練習方式我們要從低音域開始敲，敲出上行音階。
第二步驟，試著敲出轉為和弦。(把最低的一顆音移到右手外棒，以此類推)。

P.S 同時這也是Bminor7b5的和聲配置，(Tony示範了Bminor7b5-E7b9-Aminor)