Blog

It seems to me that 9/11 had a profound effect on the music business. I've never heard that talked about. As I remember it was after 9/11 that all the New York gigs fell apart. No one was going outside. All the clubs started doing the door for musicians. I heard of one club where you had to tell the guy at the door you were here to see the band or the money would not go to the band!!

I feel like i've been on a treasure hunt lately. I've been looking for grad schools to apply to for Jazz Vibraphone (graduate level). Im not finding a big list here, and was hoping some of you guys would have a better idea as to wear i could consider applying?
So far i know of: Manhattan (locke), UArts (miceli), Queens (rafalides).
Know of any others?

When you come into rehearsals what do you expect to happen? Do you have order to your rehearsals? Is there a leader, or does everyone just work together?
For me personally, i prefer to walk in with a set idea of what to do. Whether its running through tunes we as a group are all familiar with, or running through an arrangement idea someone had.

If you play and record yourself, give yourself the day after test. Don't delete the files, put them away and come back the next day or after that and listen. Watch how what you thought can change!

My Deagan 580 bar posts are eye bolts. That means that I cannot remove my bars for transportation.

I recently lost a bid for a nice Deagan 582 on eBay, which had the more modern posts that allow removing the bars.

I put in my maximum bid and let eBay automatically increment the bid. I was watching the countdown timer on eBay. I had the highest bid. 5 seconds, 4 seconds, 3, I am getting really excited..., 2, then the bid changes. Someone obviously wanted it more than I did. Oh well. I already had a vibraphone, but it would have been nice.

I've been recording myself playing tunes solo the last couple of nights. I play several versions of the tune, listen to it, critique it and then play a few more.

What I like about that is you play for about 30 minutes and then listen for 30 and then play again. You get a good chance to really check yourself out. I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't record myself. It helps me so much!

I once again learned a valuable lesson. I learned about instrument sound. Using soft sticks and playing loud creates a lot of instrument noise.

I was in the studio with Diane Monroe playing duo. So nothing covering up my sound. I was hitting hard with my soft mallets. And we heard noise from the instrument. Partly from me playing over the damper bar. I had to switch to harder mallets to get the sound I wanted!

It's funny to see this talk about learning tunes. I have 3 tunes to learn. 2 I have never played and one I've forgotten.

Jubilation (new)
Que-Tee (new)
Conception (forgot)

I spent the last 2 hours on Jubilation. I learned the melody first and then the chords. Just playing along with Cannonball (one version) and Art Farmer (the other). Two different versions. Then I checked the harmony.

Hey Vibes workshop,

Its been a month since the delaware workshop, ive learned alot, and when i practiced my 4 hours in my practice room i would work hard to memorize these tunes. Its a month later and now,the chord changes of Stella by starlight, lullaby of birdland and part C of Green Dolphin street seem blurry and i cant seem to memorizie them after a week. Any tips on Memorizing Chords to a Song

I did a recording session yesterday and something awful happened. We were playing the tune Move by Denzel Best. I couldn't play one part of the tune. I had to practice it for 20 minutes. I realized that I got into a bad habit or something over the summer and my right hand changed. I actually had to work the problem out in the studio (all friends, luckily) and come home and think about the problem. I can't really explain what it was but my right hand was moving a little differently from my left. I could feel it changing back as I practiced during the day and night. It was weird.