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Hey guys,

This is a GREAT exercise for writing, improvising, and tune learning. The idea is to write a new melody over the chord changes to an old standard tune. You can alter the harmony a little bit here and there to fit your new melody but the idea is that you could call a standard tune everyone knows, but it will sound completely different.

Hi everyone,

Here's some tips for working on fast tempos. Note that I'm only using the A section of the standard "Lover" in the examples. Enjoy!

Behn

Hi everyone, I'm attaching a pdf hand out I used recently for a clinic. In it I go through an example of how one might use a combination of Cells and Upper Structure Triads to create tension and release for playing melodic lines and phrases through your improvisations!

If there are any questions please do not hesitate to ask!

Enjoy!

I notice that there are players who use the Burton Grip and use the 2 inside mallets for their lines. I always thought that was weird for a couple of reasons, the main one being that I have a feeling if the right inside mallet was better that Gary would be using it in that way.

I do think though if you are going to play that way you need to really work on that right outside mallet. My grip is different in a small way, and I use the inside mallets and I work also really hard on the outside mallets.

Here's a great clip from the 2010 workshop in Delaware. I thought it would be interesting to some of you guys.