Is it too early for Christmas tunes?

I usually break out my Christmas book around this time of year, but somehow I never get around to really learning some of the better tunes. I thought I would change that this year and try learning a few, playing them in different keys, coming up with interesting changes, etc.

Here's my attempt on "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas".

This very simple tune by Gil Evans sounds great on vibes. Don't overplay on this one. Space is where it's at. See what kind of beautiful textures you can come up with. Be bold and creative! Use your pedaling and mallet dampening techniques.

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Continued lecture/demo lesson on learning tunes.

Hi guys This month i'm going to give you my solo version of the unknown standard called "Everything I love".

For the first one who post his own solo version, playing the head as I wrote it down, he will have a FREE skype lesson with me!!
if you have any question please contact me via email: giovanniperin87@gmail.com

Please Follow me in Youtube and FB and visit my website www.giovanniperin.com!!

Have fun

Giovanni

Revisiting a beautiful song written by the great bassist Steve Swallow. I first learned this composition while studying with Gary as a student at Berklee in the 70s. Steve wrote so many great compositions and this is certainly one of them.

This semester I have been working with my teacher on playing ballads in the solo style and wanted to share a system/ exercise that I've been using to begin developing orchestration ideas when playing the melody. The following exercise is based on a concept I modified from John Mehegan’s “Jazz Improvisation 4: Contemporary Piano Styles” called “Root – Chord Patterns”.

After doing the walk down voicing exercise comparing Green Dolphin Street and Triste, I thought it would be good to do a line study. This Triste etude is in A, a typically under played key in jazz. Most of it is built from only a few motifs. Find them and practice hard :)