Lesson

Melodic Ideas for Comping

Remember the V Chord!

For me the ability to phrase on the vibraphones is essential to communicating one's musical message. Nuance of attack, length of notes, dynamics within 2,3 or 4 notes, combining legato, staccato within a phrase, varying space within ideas; all these nuances are tools and when used musically, give your message life and depth. I love working on these concepts using changes to standards or just playing free. I've chosen rhythm changes here because they're familiar, and a medium swing feel. Swinging eighth notes are also a way to phrase lines.

Hey everyone,

I'm starting a new series on solo vibes arranging, where in the first part, I'll give an arrangement in the form of sheet music, and in the second part, I'll walk through it, note by note, explaining why and how I'm picking voicings, textures, etc. I hope this gives everyone ideas on arranging tunes on their own, as well as giving a tangible arrangement to play on gigs or for practice.

As this is the second part on "Easy to Love," I'll be posting an explanation video.

Hey everyone,

I'm starting a new series on solo vibes arranging, where in the first part, I'll give an arrangement in the form of sheet music, and in the second part, I'll walk through it, note by note, explaining why and how I'm picking voicings, textures, etc. I hope this gives everyone ideas on arranging tunes on their own, as well as giving a tangible arrangement to play on gigs or for practice.

So, in this first part, I'll just be posting the sheet music. The second part will have an explanation attached.

(ESP) Bienvenidx a Vibesworkshop.com ! Tuve una gran clase con un alumno mío. Estamos trabajando las posiciones abiertas y cerradas de acordes, además de utilizarlos por toda la escala. Casi siempre sugiero que se trabaje una mano a la vez, pero se nos ocurrió una alternativa que musicalmente hablando tiene sentido. Entonces, es muy simple, lo que vas a hacer es tocar Do mayor, (tan fácil no?). Vamos a tocar este acorde moviendo una mano por vez, pero la que no se mueve se queda en donde estaba, entonces muevo esta mano (la derecha) por arriba y dejo esta mano (la izquierda) abajo.

Me and drummer that will never miss a beat. Things to do with this drummer.

[ESP] Yo y un baterista que nunca se va del pulso. Cosas para hacer con este baterista.

So here's the deal.

I have a Sibelius file and a midi file and an xml file. So there's a way to use this with any notation file or even DAW that you have.

I put down chord tones on the beat. You fill in the off beats with notes from the scale (the rests).

Make musical sense. Half step below is fine. Half above has to be in the scale.
Listen to it and make changes to make it sound as good as you can. it won't sound super great but parts of it you will like and you can play. I recommend playing the whole solo.

Play along with me and Drum Genius!