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Yo, european cats,

There has been some talk about getting vibes in Europe lately.

We talk a lot about American manufacturers. For European cats it's expensive to get those instruments over.

But there are some great instruments over there for you guys as well.

I dig Premiere, although I can't believe they stopped making their portable instrument. WTF!!
I don't know a lot about adams but I'm sure they have good stuff. Do they make instruments for pros? The ones I've played on were tanks for a marching band. But if they had a good portable model that's cool?

I've been getting up and playing a Parker tune or 2 to get my center. Joe Magnarelli does this and I've been trying to adopt it. Rhythmically Parker is pretty heavy IMHO.

Then I'm rehearsing for a string of gigs this week with the same group. It's with Tony Marino on bass and Todd Isler on drums and led by Diane Monroe. So it's going to be a heavy week I think. Marino is such an amazing bass player.

I'm trying to find what year my Musser m75 was manufactured. Does anyone know who to contact? The serial number for the instrument is 0476.

Thanks!
Ted.

I need to confess! I bought a pair of those Sefon Harris Mallets. Big balls, short staff (lol). You know what.... I pick up just 2 mallets every now and then and just play and it is SO MUCH FUN. I get why there are 2 mallet players (and 3 [Mike]). Playing with 2 mallets makes the instrument feel more like a set of drums, more percussion. Anyway that's my take. Any 2 mallet players or 'Bi'-mallet players out there who have anything to add?? 2 mallets seem very very sexy.

As i've mentioned in my previous blog entry that we had removed an annoying bug in the gigVibes midi, I liked the change so much, we decided to finally offer the midi system as an add-on to other brands vibes.

The system consists of a nice control case with an embedded mixer and touchpanel for operating the system, and ofcourse the two blue collector rails. Range is up to 64 notes. Nice is that the control case can be mounted on a mike stand.

Thought this might be interesting. Getting the old guys to give advice to the young guys who are heading off to college.

Mine:

Be very open minded and humble.

Don't get too involved with drugs and booze, that will take away from the music in the end.

Practice your asses off. That's the only way I know to get good.

Ask questions and study with lots of different people (even if your teacher doesn't dig it). have your main guy but man get different points of views.

Any other advice from old cats to young cats???

I played a club last night where lots of old rock bands from the 60's and 70's are now playing! Full circle for them, huh?? Was a big club, but not a stadium!

I used to be a big fan of a band called 'The Tubes'. JEEEEZ, I youtubed them and I couldn't believe I used to dig them. I can't for the life of me remember why I did. Maybe I need to check out the album. But man, I don't dig them now. I must be missing something I had back then. I noticed they were pretty 'theatrical'. Maybe that was it. I'm missing something.

BTW - anyone can start the vibe diary. I personally think it's pretty cool for someone to start talking about what they're doing and then all the rest of us join in.

I was glad to finally have a day where I don't have to practice other peoples music. i do have a session tomorrow but the music is not that tough. And I do do a bunch of gigs with Diane Monroe, but I think I got a handle on all that!! We will see.

Man I missed a brunch gig today. I knew I put the gig into Google calendar, I remember checking the time with the cat and checking my next gig after it today. I remember putting the date in the calendar.

I wasn't there and I missed the damn gig! Now I'm freaked out. Do I go back to paper? Could I have done something weird and deleted it?? What a mess. I'm going to pay the bass player what he was going to make today.

September is here and we are eager to tie in with colleges. I think with technology we could do some really great things!

We work with the University of Delaware doing some things with their percussion department. We are in their syllabus. Students subscribe to the site and work with the material. And we'd like to build on that!

As part of the University of Delaware subscription I come out and do a clinic (included) and we also do a vibe hang from the school.