Subscribers

Here are three, two five, one progressions. 

Good voice leading for the most part is lazy voice leading. That means: 

1. you usually won't move the note if it's in the next chord.
2. you will move whatever voicings have to move but to the closest note in the next chord. 

With that in mind you figure this puzzle out. I'll attach the answers, but don't look until you're tried this out! 

Here is the challenge: 

These exercises go along with Behns video which is linked here under 'Check this Out'.

Don't write it down until you can play it. 

Can you play it in another key? 

I tried to make the easy one easy. The other has two choruses, one easier than the other. 

I also tried to focus on some things like a scale or a target note. 

Hello all,

Here's another lesson on dampening, and specifically how it can be used to achieve a certain stride-like feel on vibes. I use this technique when playing solo and with a trio and love its possibilities for different articulations and textures. Watch my lessons on staccato and partial dampening first if you haven't already seen them.

A crazy mental exercise in improvisation! This will help your dampening skills as well as your ears and your overall understanding of the instrument.

Hello all,

Just a quick lesson on ending ballads (or any tune, really). I demonstrate a few different options for the final chords on a ballad so you don't always have to end on 1 or the b2. Let me know if there are any questions!

Hey everyone,

Just a little technical exercise I've been working on that has some great applications for using all four mallets in your lines, and for producing a constant arpeggiating effect.

Hello all,

The vibraphone is one of the only instruments we play where you have to work extra hard to control the ending of a note. It requires two separate strokes to play and end any given note with dampening, whereas on, say, the saxophone, you can end a note by simply stopping your air. Thus, it's important to figure out how all this relates to playing the instrument in any context, including in lines, so that you're able to play what you're hearing.

Hey everyone,

Here's another lesson on dampening. This is a subtle topic that relates to how you actually physically press the mallet into the bar when you dampen. You can use varying dampening speed to create clean-sounding dampening, legato-sounding dampening, and everything in between!

Let me know if there are any questions!

-Oliver

Hey everyone,

Very excited about finding this one. Been using it a lot lately. Has anyone ever heard of it? I assume I haven't invented it, but I haven't ever heard of it, either, so I'd be curious to hear if anyone's heard this before.