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hip and back pain when playing vibraphone? Changing pedal technique

Hello all –

I was born with bad hips and as age I've had to become a bit more creative :-)

I was wondering if any vibe players ever have had hip and back pain while playing? I have found pedaling with my left foot and alternating with my right foot seems to help… Yes, unorthodox but I can make music.

Does anyone else have any tricks?

Sept 24 Blog from Ireland

I'm in Ireland and did two very different gigs. The first one pissed me off for musical reasons.

I think of playing my instrument as partly a job. Meaning I have to be proficient at what I do and competent. I want to be great but first I have to make sure I'm competent and proficient. Can't be great without that part! I get upset when musicians are not competent. It pisses me off. Of course I know there are sometimes when I haven't been competent. So I've been guilty of this in my life.

Practicing: Second Winds and the Graceful Ghost

I've not posted recently, though I have been playing a lot. Summer workshop at UDel was awesome and for the first time, I felt like I at least understood the majority of the information, even if I couldn't play all the exercises. I'm playing for 3 weeks now with a band sponsored by the local Senior Center in Centre County PA. The "Second Winds" plays a lot of 30s and 40s big band and jazz tunes. We're booked in weekly for one rehearsal plus one performance at senior living centers throughout the county, also some outdoor fests, and the annual Bellefonte Jazz fest.

Blog- your relationship with practice

Hi Folks,
I realize there is a ton of data, technical info and lessons on the site. All very valuable!
I wanted to start a series of blogs/discussions about some of the less black and white aspects of music and vibes. These blogs are intended as a way to share some personal experiences and be a platform for discussion of some of the less technical elements of music making.

Your Relationship with Practice

Mini Blog - Tune learning session

Hi Folks,
Haven't been as active as I'd like to have been this summer, but wanted to take a minute to write a short blog. I don't always feel efficient in my practice sessions, but just had a nice one today and thought I'd talk about what seemed to work for me this time:

My opinion: You're never done learning tunes. I used to know a lot more than I do now when I was doing more standards gigs. I feel that the ones I know know I'm much deeper on though. I always learn more about music by learning a new tune.

Here's what I did this morning to work on a new tune:

Stephen and I are Going Crazy

We are updating the site. Well we've (Stephen) been updating it for 2 years. The software upgrade from 6 to 7 is so dramatically different we've had to rewrite code (well Stephen does) and sort of work from the ground up. It's soooo much work, it's driving me crazy.

I'm a little light on my lessons for the site and this is partly why. Stephen has written a few thousand lines of code JUST to move the database. Drupal (software) is a drag.

It's really come close to giving up a couple times, but we're (he's) still at it.