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Here's a sample of my current morning warm ups. My warm ups are always comprised of something I'm working on and spend about 30 to 45 minutes on them and then move on to learning tunes, practicing improv or whatever but first, I warm up with my current challenge goal. I stick with a particular warm up subject each day for as long as it takes to really get a good grip on it. I'm just about finished with this particular one and I really enjoyed it so I thought I'd share.

“My Foolish Heart” - Vibraphone Masterclass – Playing the melody while adding color to the harmony via various techniques. The clip features one chorus of the melody on this classic ballad. My favorite version of this song is from the great pianist Bill Evans. One of the things that my students and I work on when focusing on solo playing is to play the melody along with various techniques of accompaniment. Those accompaniment techniques help to support the melody, sound the harmony and keep the flow going. The left hand is so important in this regard.

I've probably said a lot of this before. Consider it a refresher course :-).

Here is an invaluable lesson. When you listen to someone play, vibes or any instrument, especially when they are playing solo. Listen once and then go back and snap your fingers. Listen to the time. Is it ok? Does it suck?

I record all the time at home and then go back listen and snap my fingers. Once in a while (ha ha, more than once in a while) I get done and snap and realize that that take SUCKS. Why? because my time sucks. We have to keep time, internal time.

So by keeping time with other recordings and video you are learning to keep internal time.

Improvising on this classic with a focus on incorporating deadstrokes, ghost notes, accents, dynamics, varied sticking and dampening to enhance the line, phrasing and time feel. The vibraphone can be a difficult instrument in terms of playing it with expression and getting subtleties and nuance from it.

There is a good book called Develop Sight Reading which is great for reading as well as working on these musical elements since the pieces have a lot of phrase markings, dynamics and include many passages with varied articulation. Highly recommended.

Hey Vibes Workshop

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