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"God Bless The Child" - one of my favorite ballads composed and sung by the great Billie Holiday. Some exploration with dampening and solo playing techniques that will be covered in the two books (solo vibraphone playing and dampening) that I've been diligently writing. The books will include etudes and exercises well as solos on such standards as Mandel's "Emily" and Gershwin's "Someone to Watch over Me". It's a lot of work but rewarding at the same time. I'll be working well into the Fall since I'll be on a sabbatical from Berklee.

So here are some pics of the blocks I use.

The quick and dirty ones that I keep in my case (and a spare set in the car) are easy to make and cheap. Cut (4) 4" sections of a 2x4, then staple some non-skid pads to the bottom and nail a caster cup to the top. Looks ugly, but works like a charm.

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

“Shuffle Vibe Blues” – a fun little song that I composed to play with a left-hand shuffle feel. It’s an AAB form with the A section being a 12 bar blues. It's a bit reminiscent of something the late great Dr. John (Mac Rebennack) would play. I enjoy his music and was listening to some of his songs recently. Gary Burton had told me about Dr. John when I was studying with Gary in the 70s.

Finally was able to play it by ear in 12 keys, thru circle of 4ths. Great exercise!
Next I want to do it in Harmonic Minor. I am teaching myself to hear chord qualities, like the ii7(b5) and minor(Maj7).

I've been recently working on a solo version of Bobby Hutcherson't "Little B's Poem". It's a 16 bar tune with no bridge. The form is simple but getting the feeling of the tune plus feeling good about the time and the groove have taken me quite a long time. Although I've been "dabbling" in the tune for years I feel I'm finally kind of getting it down. It's a killer. Questions like, "What should I play in the left hand?" "Should I play every change?" "Sould I comp during the solo or just play lines?" Lots of things to consider.

Playing a solo vibraphone version of a new composition titled "Minor Haven". The lead sheet can be downloaded via the link in the video description.

I am not able to play two times exactly the same and with the same attack, but I hope you can get a feeling of the sound.
It was a simple recording using ZOOM H4n on both foldable suitcase frames in my workshop.

I'm kind of regurgitating these old articles and things I did when I was more involved in the music scene but I'll have new stuff soon. I think these articles are pretty good and I wrote them when I was doing a lot of teaching. This article uses drumming as the instrument but the method works for vibe too.

Here's the solo vibe piece that goes with the Misty Lesson. There are some serious challenges in it.