Blog

It has been ages since I posted any in the blog: last months have been enormously busy but ended with a nice holidaytrip to Scotland.

With the added new cnc-machinery and after quite some programming we were able to speed up the building process of the gigVibe models. Was really needed cause due to the developping of the carbonVibe the delivery time of the gigVibe increased a lot. Luckily we're blessed with understanding and very patient customers.
We're now finalizing the gigVibes for the last couple of them, among which a very nice 3.5 octaves with midi.

I am always curious what people are practicing. THIS is how we learn by checking each other out!

I worked on O grand Amor and finished up with really trying to play Anthropology and make it swing.

My buddy Joe Magnarelli warms up with a Parker tune. When he feels it's swinging he knows he has found his center. I dug that and mess around with that concept.

OK WHAT DID YOU PRACTICE TODAY?

So, I played a gig with a new band this weekend and afterwards and during I got a million comments to the effective of, "wow, the vibes sound cool! You add some great color behind the soloists. I didn't know you could do that with vibes" -- from the musicians as well as the audience.

Now all of this was very gratifying but of course, I KNOW that vibes sound cool already -- that's why I play it! It's amazing how many people have no idea what a vibraphone can do, even other musicians. And especially what a 4-mallet, chord-oriented vibist can do.

My first blog ever!

I just got home from the Vibes workshop at the University of Delaware, and what a great time it was. Meeting David Friedman was terrific; what a genuine, warm person he is and how passionate about imparting his encyclopedic knowledge of the vibraphone to the students. I truly envy the vibraphone students in Germany that get to study with him.

Thanks Tony for organizing this, and thanks to Harvey Price for hosting the event. I hope to go again.

So 2 great workshops this summer! I'm amazed at what how vibe players can grow in one week of hard work! It's really cool because I meet vibe players from all over the world now. It's all the same, you work hard you get better!

I'm amazed also at how this site is used in the workshop. Players bring up lessons as topics to talk about, they have questions about lessons. Between all of us, the site has grown into a HUGE source of information. I see this at every workshop.

I'm curious about other people's experience with mallet break in. I have a set of mallets that sounded really harsh (i.e. too hard) when I first played them and now they sound really great.

Hello fellow vibes players. I've been posting a lot of detailed lessons with PDFs the last few weeks, but something I've also been intending to do is just jump on once in a while and share a little idea of something that I find helpful, so here goes.

I've seen some of you guys around for a while now. Dimitri, Tarik, my great buddy John Daly, Barry. And there are others. You guys have become friends of mine and I'm blown away watching you guys get better on this instrument. In AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) people get a lot of strength by hearing of others journeys in getting sober. I think that's pretty powerful stuff.

I would love to hear some of you guys talk about your journey's with this instrument over the last several years and how you progressed. What did you do, how did overcome some of the obstacles in your way!!!

I played on a great instrument tonight in Ireland. It's a Premiere. I forget the model, but it's an incredibly portable instrument. And I think it sounds really good. What bummed me out and caused me to write this blog tonight is John told me that Premiere stopped making this instrument 6 years ago. I've played on this instrument here for the last 4 years and have fantasized about someday owning one. Easy to set up and move around. I also think it has a nice sound.

Short answer: Probably not, but if we do all the things we should be doing as players, we will impress an audience. It should be a byproduct of what we are doing, not the focus.

Somewhat more diffuse, longer answer:

Performing music, specifically jazz, is an artistic form of communication.

There is a lot in the prior sentence.