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Here is the rarely told story of my first band. It began as a solo venture, playing unaccompanied pieces on marimba and vibes. Soon I decided to add a pianist, a sort of preview of my duets with Chick Corea, which would come along later on down the road. Next came the need for a bass player, followed by the addition of trombone, clarinet, trumpet, and drums. Not exactly the most logical instrumentation, you’re probably thinking. But, when you only have one brother and one sister, plus two parents, you make do with what you have.

Watch the concert here.

This will be online and live at
http://www.mogulus.com/thephillysoundlive

Anyone in the Philly area who's interested, come on out!

HOWEVER the concert will be online for the first 50 people who log on.
it will be here:
http://www.mogulus.com/thephillysoundlive

Next 2 bars....

I've been talking with a student about clarity. Just think about what that might mean. What do you need to be clear? How do you play clearly.

To be clear on something, you need information about the subject. How can I talk in a clearly way about life in France when I've never done research and only spent a few days there. I'd need to go and live there, or at least do a lot of research (practice).

I thought I'd pass on some of the things we came up with when talking about clarity in class.

Over the years I have had several vibraphone and marimba students learn and study hymns and chorales. These are wonderful tools for developing chordal playing, voice leading techniques, and learning theory. All of this can be translated into jazz playing and developing comping skills. I even use them as daily sight reading exercises.

My favorite band EVER!!!! I couldn't find a clip where they actually played it but you can see it in this clip.

I was asked to post more comping etudes. Here's another take from my previous 'All the Things You Are' chord study.

I think the best way to do this is to write in the changes from the Real Book. Then look at each chord and check out what I'm playing. The trick here is to notice what's being played and what's not being played in each chord.

Again I like leaving the chords out and having you write them in because it focuses you on the tune and focuses you on looking at the music and analyzing the chords.

Also included above is Phillipe's play along track.

Here James puts all the drums together.