Dear friends vibists,

unfortunately (!), I have decided to sell my brand new M55G. I bought it last november, it came to my house straight from the Musser factory.

I am a first year graduate music student in NY. As from this summer I am not sure whether I will be able to continue my studies because it is possible that I will not get my funding and scholarships renewed (I have 3 at the moment). We all know that these are tough times for the arts....

Since it was Lionel Hampton's birthday on Friday, I've decided to focus my practicing this weekend on tunes he was known for. Figured I might as well start with the one that started it all! I tried to play as Hampton-esque as I could...you can be the judge of how well I succeeded!

...I had to use the school vibes for this, and the pedal is definitely a little creaky! I played along with this recording: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_QDBdWsaNw

And here's the backstory from Hampton on how this became the first recorded tune with vibes:

Practicing Misty. Melody alone (well, with Florian coughing in the back ground) ;-)

Here's one chorus etude on rhythm changes. Just one chorus chock full of bebop licks. Usually when I work on blues or rhythm changes I'll transcribe a bunch of stuff, then mix it up together and make a little etude like this to practice in some different keys, thinking about how the lines work and trying to make it swing and feel natural. See if you find that useful.
-Tyler

I too would like to give my little contribution on our new TOTM and post a lesson... A great lesson!
Enjoy, work hard, and post your version based on it!! ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNZBHkTUv24&feature=share

Here is a video from my MMus Recital,

Enjoy :)

So I think a bunch of us should go nuts and make a commitment to rhythm changes.

If there was a good commitment we could even plan some things. Maybe get some guys over here and do a vibe hang where we play ONLY rhythm changes or variants of!!!

How about one head many keys every 4 days!

Lots of ideas. Who would practice the crap out of rhythm changes???

Another memorable day for a memorable guy, Lionel Hampton who's birthday occurs today. What an amazing guy, he put the vibraphone on the map.

http://youtu.be/R_rTICMVXQQ

John

His name is George Weldon and I think he's local to Philadelphia. But there's something very interesting about this photo.

Let's pay a little tribute to Teddy Charles who left us this week... Smoking title from 1956... with Charles Mingus (if you please!) :o)