Just got these. I'm amazed so far at how they cut the sound without cutting frequencies. All vibe players should have ear plugs. This is a pretty piercing instrument.

I got mine from here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/MusicMolds/173799289325456

Here is a vibe player(Thomas Dobler)who uses several piano licks on vibes.
There are some interesting things happening here I think.

I'm sure the pros will have more insightful comments.

-Todd

Really nice posts by Joe Veltri on the Dave Friedman Etudes!

I struggle daily with issues involving music and many of them are just typical mid-life things but one of them is that I realized late into my musical life that the vibraphone has a "falsetto-sounding" voice to me. Not only the physical range of the instrument but it's sound seems "falsetto" to me. If I were to choose another instrument, I'd pick one that has a range in the natural male voice range. Anyone else ever thought of that? Yeah... I know.. I think too much. But the vibe just sounds so...falsetto.

I've always admired of how well piano players can play changes with walking bass lines. It's not so easy to accomplish on vibes. The way I attempt this requires some mallet dampening to keep everything sounding full and clean.

To get started you might try writing out a walking line to practice with, but ultimately you want to be able to create your voicings and "walking bass" spontaneously.