“Lucky Southern” by Keith Jarrett. It’s been sort of a Berklee standard through the years. A fun song to play with an AABA form.
“Who Can I Turn To” - inspired by pianist Bill Evans’ version of this classic song. Focusing on some concepts from my upcoming book Solo Vibraphone Playing. The book will include many concepts from my studies with Gary Burton as well as many others gleaned from the many great jazz pianists. It may take awhile to get it out but stay tuned.
"Everything Happens To Me" - Exploring on the vibraphone while playing over the piano track.
Always a work in progress but also fun at the same time.
Using the first 16 bars of Exercise #1 from Ted Reed's classic book, ideas are adapted to the balafon in a variety of styles to build independence.
Download the attached excerpt from Ted's book.
Play the head along with me.
Then we trade 8s. Remember it's AABA Dmin Dmin Ebmin Dmin
I'll start off the 8s. That means you are only soloing in Dmin. However you have to comp for me when it goes to Ebmin7. So work on your chords and solo in Dminor.
I can put up a version where you solo first that means you will solo in both Dmin and Ebmin
Get it?
Play along, record it and post it!
I kept my solo simple. Maybe you can transcribe some of my 8s? Do some ear training?
Its been a while since I've posted anything so here's a tune I've been working on, no comping on this just bass drums and vibes melody and solo. Feedback welcome Thanks
"Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans? - dedicated to the late great pianist and music educator Ellis Marsalis. Having fun playing some traditional jazz on the marimba and hats.
This weekend at the first-ever online vibes bootcamp, David Friedman spoke about the importance of following the movement of the bassline and the harmonies when choosing chords for My Funny Valentine (and the same goes for many other tunes). That reminded me of a lesson Tony posted back in 2011, but it was audio only so I made this video to show at the vibes coffeehouse.
Pretty self-explanatory. Tony thought there weren't enough gongs on my last post.
Well... gong solo this time.
Need I say more?
My apologies to Juan Tizol. It was a great tune before this happened.
This weekend is our VW Bootcamp.
David is working in his class on the My Funny Valentine. He put up a version and so did Hauke so I wanted to do one as well.
I have not played the tune in a long time but I thought I could bang it out. I couldn't. I had to remember the parts and assemble it again. Hence my comment in the beginning, which I decided to leave in.
Don't any of us who record have comments like this or worse on some of our recordings?