Blog

Today was my last day in Philly, I finally got to sleep a little bit which was nice. I checked out of the hotel and went down to the University of the Arts where I was going to sit in on one of Tony's classes an hour later. I had planned to get here early in hopes of finding breakfast and right around the corner there was a place called Mama Angelina's (i think) and I got to have some awesome pizza for breakfast.

Today was awesome!!! After about 4 hours of sleep and a huge breakfast I hit the road for Philly. With only two wrong turns I was about 5 minutes late.

Today started out a little rough, only got about 3 hours of sleep and had to run off to music theory, mail my application for that whole composition thing and then I ran down to the local drum store to pick up some mallets (Balter 23Rs, after seeing them in his product video). I was able to practice for quite a while today, finished really getting into Billie's Bounce and I started into Tony's lesson on Take the A Train but didn't get to far in. I still need to run through all the books sometime to double check I didn't accidentally throw something in the wrong folder.

I have been doing a little work in the books over the past week just to get accustomed to everything and see what all is out there. Started today out a little earlier, I decided to keep up on my AP Music Theory class this week which starts at 7:45 so I was able to get home and start working by 9. Tony played with some settings and blocked everyone out of the settings from around 11:30-2 so I had a nice little lunch break and some time to finish learning Billie's Bounce. I was about 2/3 of the way done with the books was when I was blocked so it was pretty easy to come back and finish it.

"only after you’ve learned 1,000 tunes do you realize that there are really only about 20 song forms and every tune is a combination of segments of these 20 forms"... I read somewhere on Hal Galper's website.
That statement goes with me for a few weeks now.
Who are those famous 20?

EVERYTHING this man (tony) does is top notch. Every time he plays the vibes, great music happens. So, why the hell isn't Tony written about in ALL the magazines, booked with top paying gigs and so busy performing that he'd have to hire out his vw site to someone to run for him? I know things are picking up for him but I have a theory that the reason he's not more "important" in the biz is because he hasn't got the "wave" going yet. It really pisses me off when people have to be told how good an artist is in some magazine or on some endorsee list before people can trust their own judgement.

I'd love to hear what other people do when they rehearse their bands. I'd especially like to hear about rehearsals with Frank Zappa (if anyone at VW has any experience with that). I heard he rehearsed a lot. I'd also like to hear about rehearsals with "local" bands and rehearsals that David Friedman, Gary Burton and Tony conduct when traveling, and anyone who is doing "professional" rehearsals who is paying their members for their time.

The next "traditional" vibe hang is April 3 from 12-2 East Coast USA time.

I would LOVE to get more people involved. If we have to go longer than 2, then fine. You guys are posting videos and audios, so I know some of you can try this. You can use a web cam on your computer if you want. That will work ok with your computer mic.

In fact I have a bigger plan in mind… to have a whole day online music performance with vibes players from all over the world!!

I laughed when I heard vibraman mention Franz's name (Franz is a new subscriber). He said, 'Man I thought I knew all the great players in Germany'.

There's a message here I think worth mentioning. Man be humble. You just never know who's sitting in the audience, or who's around the corner from you.

I had Mike Gordon over the house today. I didn't know much at all about Phish. But man some people worship this group huh??? He shot some video for our hand drum site. Any fans? I'll also put some on face book.

I was supposed to go to the concert tonight, but i got sick.