Essays-Thoughts

Hey everyone,
I was just thinking/talking about phrasing and how many notes one can fit into a phrase.
I always remember teachers and mentors telling me to play fewer notes when I was in school, however I would listen to them play and there would be 4 million notes in a single measure. What i've learned since that time is that they should have told me to concentrate on phrasing. To Me, phrasing is the difference between an enjoyable and engaging solo/composition and an un-enjoyable one.

David Liebman is the man. I have heard lots of stories of him getting really dark with students, and who knows how true these claims are... but every time I have heard him speak on jazz or other topics he has been eloquent and polite. I found this "speech" of him talking on practicing. Nothing we haven't all heard before, but still a great reinforcement!

http://www.daveliebman.com/Feature_Articles/practice1.htm

I just figure since its Thanksgiving, I would show my thanks.

Tony, I owe you everything. If it wasn't for this site I wouldn't be playing. This site is the reason I'm even at Berklee. Because of you I was able to meet my teachers and people that have helped me along the way.

This is a great place to get information and see how people practice and what things are necessary to be a player. There is SO much information here.

Also this is a great way to find a vibraphone in different countries! Without this it would be so hard to find vibes in other places.

Very Interesting speech and very nice music (as usual with Gary !).

Interesting (but not very deep) article by Herbie Hancock on Popeater -- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/herbie-hancock/crowd-sourced-music-video-…

Tom P.

Recently upon reviewing some transcriptions I have done, I stumbled across a very simple and clear example of why transcription is so important I thought i'd share.

The transcription is of John Coltrane playing his composition "LazyBird".

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.

I thought I'd share a pretty funny story from a gig last night:

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.

Life has gotten in the way of my music interests but I still try to get to my music room a couple of times a week.