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Lennie Tristano, George Shearing... 2 masters of drop 2 voicings. (Was Shearing?) I'm going to listen to more Lennie, but I played on the piano today and I thought of him immediately.

I've been really shedding all this. A couple points I'm thinking.

Don't take those scales and voicings literal. Any sideways movement of chords can have drop 2s.

Make up a simple line in a key or mode. Harmonize the melody in closed position (move the chords sideways), then do drop 2.

I was playing the C6, Fdim chords (with the various inversions) in Dana's drop 2 lesson. As I was playing, I heard the song, "Once in a While", and thought it might be a good tune to apply the Drop 2 voicing for chord melody.

I would like a little guidance on the application of the lesson. I understand the example of playing the C Maj Bebop scale with the C6 or the diminished chord underneath, but I am not sure about applying chords to an arbitrary melody.

I think we've all fallen in love with Joe's tune, 'Sword of Whispers'. I hope you guys all have Joe's CD 'Sticks and Strings'. It's a beautiful CD. Guitar and Vibes were made for each other, and if you didn't know that, this CD will show you. The playing is phenomenal.

I asked Joe if I could write up an arrangement on his tune 'Sword of Whispers' and post it here for subscribers. Joe graciously agreed. So here it is.

I'm also working up a solo version. This tune is so fun to play!

I couldn't wait for Tony's etude so I started working with the Sword of Whispers lead sheet on Joe's site. This is a demo recording to put down some ideas. I was mainly trying to get the notes and some harmonies. I need major work on my rhythm. I tried playing along with http://www.metronomeonline.com/ but it only can help so much.

Anyway, you know where the Stop button is.

Barry

Some time ago, Tony started a "gig story" series. This one here is by Paul Emil Breitenfeld, AKA Paul Desmond. It's to be found, among other things in relation to Desmond, on http://www.puredesmond.ca/. It's a most humorous gig story written by the guy who thought he sounded "like a dry Martini". We can all do with a bit of humor these days, can't we ?
I've attached it as a PDF file.

Ok, all this talk about sticking, I thought I'd post something I think and get everyone's response.

I think to really play lines and play them spontaneously you need to totally have your alternate sticking down. That's the most important sticking there is. For me all this double stroke stuff is cool, but the ultimate fluid line comes out of mastering alternate sticking.

Just my opinion and the way I teach. Give me your takes on this.

I think if you master alternate sticking and alternate sticking on C maj, that then you can start switching things up.

I started working on the Cherokee Etude. Here are the first 32 bars. I cheated a little bit, splicing in a couple sections and removing pauses. Eventually I will get it smoothed out.

My sticking is different from Tony's suggested sticking. I am exclusively using the inner mallets, always alternating, for the bass line and mallet 4 for the melody. I haven't tried the second half yet, so I don't know if I will be able to use the inner mallets, alternating as I do in the first half...

Barry

Here are a few ideas demonstrated for practicing Drop 2 Lessons 1 & 2. This is not just for 4 mallet guys.

Hope this helps.

p.s. I forgot to talk about using these scale patterns to go through 4 mallet permutations (1234, 4321, 1243 etc)

Here is lesson two where I demonstrate harmonizing minor and dominant bebop scales. Make sure to run these through all keys with a metronome. Notice how the major and relative minor scales are identical (you only have to learn one that you think of 2 ways ;) Also notice that on the dominant scale you play a diminished chord on the natural sixth step (instead of flat sixth on others) which is a departure from the progression of I7-V7dim-I7-V7dim etc (I falter for a second with this on the video). Please also practice the arpeggios on the chord tones and non-chord tones as well.

Here is my first lesson on applying the drop 2 voicing concept to the vibes. The ultimate goal is to be able to harmonize any melody with a 4 note voicing the way a horn section in a big band might or even to execute solo passages in this style.

Please go ahead and purchase Mark Levine's "The Drop 2 book" here:
http://www.shermusic.com