all-levels

Beautiful ballad written in 1940 by Rodgers and Hart. Some chord progression changes from Miles Davis and Keith Jarrett.

Now available on Amazon: Voicing Concepts For The Jazz Vibist. The book addresses a variety of voicing concepts as applied to the II-7 V7 I Maj progression as well as standards including Autumn Leaves, Green Dolphin Street, Stella By Starlight. Also included, chord melodies to You Are Too Beautiful and But Beautiful.

What a great tune Flamenco Sketches is for working on chords and chord melodies. There is no melody so it's all you! I love practicing this tune.

A beautiful song my pianist Keith Jarrett. I remember seeing him do this and "Country" live on SNL in the 70s. It was incredible. His album with his European band playing this is also fantastic.

so, here is my second post about what I've been up to the last couple of years.

Hello all – I am working on a set of pieces and the first movement is a solo vibraphone piece titled "Meditation" the piece itself will be called "Thoughts" here is a rough sketch of the first movement. I know for the "acoustic traditionalist/purist" might not like my sound as I'm trying some reverb with pickups and other little gadgets. About two years ago I started teaching an audio class; which has got me interested in everything sound!Take care and I hope all of your doing well. Jim PS I would appreciate any feedback – I'm not the super Pro, but love playing vibraphone :-)

Hello all – I am working on a set of pieces and the first movement is a solo vibraphone piece titled "meditation" the piece itself will be called "thoughts" here is a rough sketch of the first movement. Take care and I hope all of your doing well. Jim

I use a metronome a lot. You know some people are against using metronomes. And some of those people don't have good time. If a musician with great time is against metronomes, then ok, we disagree. But if you don't have great time and your against using a metronome then I don't get it. It would be a great tool for you in my opinion.

So here's an example of how I use it. I take a tune I'm working on and slow down the tempo. In this case the tune is in 3/4. I have the metronome hit on 1 and I play.

“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.

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.