Lesson

I've told this story a million times. So sorry if you heard it before.

When my 1st wife was pregnant she came home and said so many woman were pregnant at the save time. I said I bet it's not any more than usual however you are pregnant and now you're seeing all these other pregnant women. We got into a big fight!

The point is, sometimes just doing stuff will pay off later.

Practice dividing the octave up into 3 parts and don't worry about why. I can do it very easily and if you can't then you should so we both can do it, think about it and talk about it.

Don't always look for reasons and explanations as to why to do something.

But I can take most of the tunes I know and play 3rds and 7ths only. Can you?

I used to really check out anything a great player could do and then I would do it. I didn't give a flying %$%$ why or what or harmonically this or that. I just saw they were doing it and I wasn't and couldn't. I figured if I was great then I could do it. That was my why to do it. Get it?

I downloaded a lead sheet last night and started learning this.

This morning I've been trying to learn/practice it in different tempos; I'll upload two of those tempos here. While it was fairly quick to learn, the challenge for me is the swing, the feel. And really locking in the time. So I'll keep working on it!

This first video is of the slightly faster tempo. I'll load the slower one next...

Obviously, work to do. Onward!

Balafon to Vibraphone: a unique path to new ideas

I wanted to share some thoughts about my balafon lessons and how they might connect to your primary instrument: vibes, marimba, piano, etc.

Read the pdf for all the information. Using licks to learn vocabulary and to practice moving harmony around in different keys is great! Take all your licks and move them around!

Find variations of them as well. Then you won't be a copy and paste player. You'll understand vocabulary and harmony and harmonic sound.

Anthropology is not an easy tune. But learn it any way :-).