Essays-Thoughts

Twitter is one of those web apps where it's kind of hard to find some meaning and usefulness. I always feel a little vain when I Tweet. But I recently found a good use for it especially if you don't mind sifting through some stuff.

Put in Coltrane or Milt or Hindemith (like I did) in the search box and search through this gigantic database of 140 character tweets (as they say). I found out some websites, some great cds and a few facts about Hindemith.

I'm starting to think that it's a really great tool for getting info.

Everybody by now must know about Pandora. What a great web-app.

I've been using it lately to get myself in a vibe. I've felt a little stale about my voicings and things, so I created a Hindemith radio channel and have been listening to that, focusing on it and also as I do other things.

I've been doing the U Arts summer camp program. This year for some reason was a hard year. I'm not sure why, however, I'm done after tomorrow (friday) and then I'll get back to posting my usual barrage of stuff here!

I'm thinking the next vibe hang could be July 26th. Who wants to play on it??

(Still working out some details)

We're in our second lesson with 'Take the A Train' in our tune group. I'm psyched and hoping that people stay interested in this. I think it would be pretty cool to have someday 10 or 20 of us working on a tune all together.

When I practice it takes me a good hour before I can really start to get somewhere. It seems like for me that that first hour doesn't really even count although i have to do it to get past everything else. Get past what? The day, the crap, the business, the other side of the brain stuff.

I think of that and I want to pass it on. I can't imagine I'm unique, most of us must have this buffer that we have to get past. It's probably important to find out where your buffer ends and make a note of it.

I'm thinking about how to do a day online in August where maybe different vibe players do concerts all day online. I think we would need about 6 or 7 people, start at noon on a Sunday and go until 6 (Philly time). That should get most of us in there. Each of us would play about 45 mintutes.

Any ideas or takers? It would be the first online Day of Vibraphone!

first of all, i can´t say enough thankyous to nico and tony for such a great weekend. the workshop for me was more then great and bet it was for everyone who was involved.

Man I've been here practicing for the last few hours. I'm working on stuff I worked on yesterday and I'm realizing once again how important consistency is.

I'm seeing what I did yesterday flow a little better today. It's really exciting and always has been.

That's why I just want to mention about this. Make sure you're setting aside time each day, or most days. You need that consistency to get better.

Just taking a 5 minute break to pass on my 2 cents.

I wanted to address something that I have struggled with for a long time- attaching my self-esteem to my ability to play. I have always struggled with technique and regular practice habits, mainly due to the incessant self-flagellation I inflict during the practice sessions I manage to put together. Plus, part of me feels like if the music business is as bad as everyone says, why spend my time learning to be a great vibraphone player only to be damned to eternal penury playing door gigs in generic jazz quartets?