Marimba

Hey Tony!
Happy 50th!
Congratulations for making it so far & keep going!
Thanks for this pool of great people & ideas, keep it going, too!
I was thinking much about what would be appropriate to post for such a special event.
What came to my mind finally was the long tradition amongst Austrian jazz musicians interpreting Thelonious Monk, because of the great potential they see in his compositions.
So I wrapped one for you!

I came across this. Man Lalo, beside talent, has a great sense of humour... but that music is very serious! I had never tought about it before...

Enjoy!

- M

The Chief is a really nice tune Pat Metheny wrote and recorded on a CD called Reunion, with Gary Burton. I made this video clip for one of Tony's Vibe Hangs, and decided to post it here too.

I've included links to the Lead Sheet and an mp3 of the Piano Accompaniment to use to practice the tune.

Cheers!

Here is another great lesson by Hal Galper on Vocabulary!

TJ

MikeK added a link to this lesson. But it is really great so I thought I'd add it as an embedded video!

TJ

Playing beautiful 3 and 4 mallet chordal rolls is a goal all vibes and marimba players should work toward. Yes, vibes players mostly use the pedal to sustain notes, but sometimes using a roll is better. Here is a simple, easy to learn method you can use to play really nice rolls for 3 and 4 part chords. The trick is to have each mallet strike the bar at a different time, creating smooth legato sound.

Wow!! I've never seen anything like this.

I want to acknowledge the life of a teacher and friend who passed away suddenly at the age of 61 last week Saturday May 8, 2010.

I started takeing drum lessons from Terry when I was 7 yrs. old. I continued with him until I was 15 yrs old and had a friendship with him through out my life. Terry was an excellent teacher, always encouraging, supportive and gave me a good reality check a couple of times when I needed it. He was never demeaning, just a regular guy, and a very nice and caring one at that.

This piece, a sarabande from Sonata IV in D minor, is a slow thoughtful piece and a good 4 mallet exercise. Use the 4 mallets for melody lines as well the block chords. For instance, in bar 6 you’ll find it handy to use 4 to play the wide intervals in the line. The same approach should be used in bar 23 where the melody line jumps around a lot.

Here's the lead sheet. Check out the groups of five an six. Just try going through the piece playing only the rhythms. I think Terry Bozzio played this as a drum solo.