I'm so glad that our site 'mother' came to visit us at Nico's. Here's her and David playing Summertime.

Marie was watching David play and she said, he's a 'maniac' isn't he. That's a term we have for someone who just practices and plays all day and night. We asked him and David said he's always on the instrument always playing it. That's what it feels like when you talk to him and listen to him, that he's working on this thing like he was when he was 20.

They sound really great together. And I think they both became great friends in a day!

What a down to Earth, hip guy Friedman is. It's really great. At this workshop he's just one of the guys. He's just like another buddy. However, when he teaches I'm amazed at how much he can draw out of someone in a few simple minutes. That blew me away. He'd get someone up there, make a couple comments and bam they'd be making music together.

What a treat, getting to jam with Friedman!

Me and Marie once again on the site at the same time, but finally we're in the same room. The site would not be as cool as it is without Marie. It's funny the most important person on the site doesn't play the instrument AND knows as much about it as anyone!

Getting to jam with David Friedman. Really cool.

Getting to meet the members of the site is an incredible thing. You make all these friends online and then here they are.

That is totally cool. Getting to meet Marie Noelle (and her best friend Bernard) after all the conversations online is a really great thing. Seeing old friends like John Daly and Tarik was great. Meeting new friends from the site, like Nico from France and the Friedman Clan (Simon and Charlie) is all a thrill for me. This is exactly my fantasy for the site, to bring us all together. To see all the hard work pay off is really cool.

Check out this etude. It's playin over the tune 'Do Nothing 'til You Hear From Me'. It's a 2 mallet solo however it's a melody and an accompaniment. It's really important to be able to make harmony work in the simplest way possible. Ultimately can you play a single line and outline the harmony of a tune? If you don't understand think about the Bach solo flute, violin and cello sonatas and partidas. Study them and you'll learn a ton about bebop.

Anyway, here's me playing an etude and below is a PDF of one you can work on.

Yep, there are several different blues scales. They each have a unique quality. Of course they do, any grouping of notes will have a quality that's unique and different from other groups. For instance play a major scale. Now flat the 3rd. Just changing one note is going to uniquely change the sound of that scale or grouping of notes.

Smokin' and LA who's who band

Hi All,

Here's a solo version of "Alone Together" for your consideration :-). I've been trying to get this together for weeks now, but have been battling technical issues and finally just decided to give up. There's some buzzing and clicking in the audio -- I have no idea where it comes from unless my computer just can't keep up with recording both audio and video. When I do just audio it's fine. Plus, I kind of spaced out on the melody in the last chorus.

But in the spirit of "perfect is the enemy of good", here you go. Comments appreciated :-).

Tom P.