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Andre Juarez

Check out Andre.

He's a great vibe player from Brazil. I'm trying to get him to post some lessons on the site talking about the Brazilian rhythms and how to play them on the vibes! He has great chops. He played a whole 1.5 hour show and I think I heard him miss ONE note!!!!!

Our next TOTMs (yes, it's plural!)

Hi everyone,

Next week, we enter the month of July, time for a clean, new start on a Tune of the Month.

I've spoken with Tony, and we've decided that it may be a good idea to have 2 tunes to study for next month, each of varying difficulty.

Everyone is welcome to study whichever one they see fit, or both, doesn't matter, but be assured that there will be lessons on both tunes. I suggested Autumn Leaves to Tony awhile back as a nice, simple one, but forgot that we did that one a couple of years ago (isn't that crazy? We've been doing TOTMs that long now!)

Ensemble From Mexico

It's great to be at this workshop in Patagonia.

Yesterday I saw Everisto Aguilar's ensemble from UAT in Mexico. That made the whole trip so worthwhile. They gave an incredibly moving concert at the festival. Eversito seems like such an amazing teacher. Improvisation is very important in his teaching it seems. You guys would have been blown away by this concert!

Another Reason Why the Site is So Great!

I'm in Patagonia right now at a percussion festival. I realized something when I was doing my workshop and talking to people about the vibraphone. I had a lot of confidence talking about this instrument. I actually felt proud about the instrument.

Being proud of the instrument for me comes from having a strong knowledge of the instrument. Now think about this. I've probably read about 90-95 percent of everything on this site. Do you realize how much information that is? How much I've learned? Unbelievable.

More On Aim IMHO

I'm sitting here practicing all these Parker tunes for an upcoming gig. I have dived back deep into Charlie Parker for the last month. It's amazing and practicing is so much fun.

I'm thinking about aim a lot. I'm trying to feel my arms and not only hear the hard passages but also feel where my arms are. Try playing Shaw 'Nuff on the vibes. This is very difficult. As difficult as playing Bach or some 20th century music. I really feel like Charlie Parker is the guy for all us vibe players to study on the vibes. Even if it's just for aim and phrasing.