So I've added the feature that members can now blog. This might be a great way to keep in touch. Here's my challenge, that we all blog once a week if only a few sentences and talk about what we're working on and the challenges if any. Even questions about things.
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Here's mine:
For me as a player with 30 years now of playing experience, I'm always dealing with those 'long' term problems. I've transcribed so many solos, worked on so much stuff, that sometimes I can get depressed about it, especially when I think of what to work on.

A little experiment here. Subscribers can now blog. It might be a good way for us all to keep in touch. Why not start a blog and talk about what you're doing. Then some of the 'faculty' and respond.

There are 4 faculty members here. You've probably seen them all, myself, Tjaco, Patty and Behn. All good players with a lot to say. So maybe check in once a week and talk about what you're doing!

Here is a solo of Milt Jackson playing Don't Get Around Much Anymore.

I just added the transcription below. Remember to first transcribe it yourself. This is a great one to play through all the keys!

Hello everybody,

I've been thinking of doing some videos of etudes from the Dave Samuels book: Contemporary Vibraphone Technique. It's a great book for developing independence between four mallets.

I talked to Tony about the book, but he didn't know about it. I was thinking on putting a link to buy this book, but it seems hard to find... Has anyone recently bought this book and knows where to find it? There is an old version, but also a new one that is two different books. I have the first one. Is this book not being printed anymore?

Hey Tony,

I tested something out. I recorded this directly to my laptop using Pinnacle studio. It's still the camera mic. Somehow I couldn't figure out how to get an external audiosource. But the sound is a little better because you don't hear the tape rolling anymore.

But Anyway, I think you can also do this so you can upload videos quickly.

Let me know what you think. I'll try to get the audio from my zoom in there and upload some more stuff.

CU

TJ

Alright, here's 10 more lessons on stride playing and chordal playing. I am fried but I wanted to crank these out. My buddy Barryk is my unofficial proof reader, so hopefully these will be acceptable to him!

Here's a 4 part lesson on solo playing. I just turned the cameras on and just went with the flow. They do show some of the techniques I use to playing chordally. I don't even know if you call them techniques, I don't know what you'd call them. I do know they came out of just playing and playing. They developed that way, without a lot of thought.

So I had fun experimenting with a new camera angle. I hung a cam from above and played Blue Bossa. Hopefully you guys find it of use. Maybe it will give you some ideas. Let me know what you think.

The more I teach and the older I get I feel that it's all about being simple and getting your point across.

Blue Bossa is a great tune to make a study of. Here are some things to do from easy to difficult. You should work on some of these ideas and then post them online here.

1. Memorize whatever you do.
2. Learn the melody
3. Learn the chords
4. Play a chord tone solo
5. Do all the above in all keys
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1. Make an arrangement of the tune. NOT a strict arrangement just work out ways to play the melody and accompany yourself.
2. Do this in all keys.

Here's me playing Blue Bossa for jl12 here at the online school. I thought I would post it for everybody. I tried to play very simple, and i shot the camera from above to see if that would be helpful.