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Opening Licks

I'm fasinated by lines so today I studied opening licks. I put them down in a Finale doc and thought I'd post them.

I sat and listened to them until I could pretty much play them, then I went over to the hunk of metal and tried to slowly play the lick without messing up. Then I sped it up and put it through all the keys.

You guys should try it. Licks are attached.

Study Of the Tune Conception

Here's a lesson on the tune Conception by George Shearing.

There's a chord melody etude, and a chord study. I also have a chord analysis. That is the chord melody with the bass notes. You should try and go through the tune and put the chords in yourself before you look at the other etudes. You will learn a lot doing it this way.

Above is a link to the video where I talk about the tune and four mallet playing.

This is Amazing - Michael Playing the EWI

There's been talk about the Mallet Kat here. Which to me means electronic music.

I know there are varying opinions on electronic music especially pertaining to the vibes.

Well check this out. It's not a midi vibes but this should show you the worlds and places you can go to.

This is one of the most incredible videos I've seen on youtube. And the thing is this is 10 years old maybe? I think. And look what Michael Brecker does.

Wow!

Solo Vibe Playing

So here's another video of my mentor, Steve Giordano. Again listen to him play. I think you can imagine playing most of this on the vibes. For me, this is where the solo playing comes from. We can learn a lot from the guitar.

Just imagine this was a set of vibes.

A Green Etude

Don't use the pedal if you don't want to. This is just an exercise in some alternate 4 mallet sticking. Not single lines, but 2 note voicings.

I was messing around with these ideas this morning. I banged this puppy out before heading out to class. I'll double check it later.

Your job is to figure out what standard it is based on, analyze the voicings and play it.

You can name the tune here. It should be obvious!!!!

I added a track with some percussion. This is an etude that should just give you some independent 4 mallet ideas.