all-levels

An excerpt from future book on vibraphone dampening. This is a chorus on an F Blues which utilizes various dampening techniques. The book will feature etudes, exercises and pieces illustrating various dampening techniques and uses. Making headway but it's going to be a big project taking me well into the Fall. Meanwhile, my book for Voicing Concepts for the Jazz Vibist is available from Amazon.

The chorus can be viewed and downloaded. The link is in the video description.

In this etude I really move the chords around. Lots of passing stuff. I suspend the 1 chord a bit.

Also there's a surprise at the end. I change the harmony. Can you hear it? Do you know what it is? Who's the first to post what happens.

I've given voicings for Giant Steps. Your just is to study the harmony, write in the chords with their upper partials and then memorize the voicings. Then add rhythm and comp with a play along track to get the voicings inside of you.

This is our first try at recording this wonderful little song at a crazy, slow tempo. (The original version is up tempo!) I'm not sure if anyone under the age of 50 is familiar with this tune. The composer, Harold Arlen, wrote such classics as, "Somewhere over the rainbow", "Blues in the Night", "Sleepin'Bee", etc.

A little “Basin St. Blues” from a warmup session today at Berklee before classes. I love these classic old gems. Some great versions from Louis Armstrong, Oscar Peterson and Keith Jarrett.

“Take the A Train” by Billy Strayhorn – warmed up today with this classic. I’m in a practice room at Berklee right next door to the hand percussion room. A little bleed through the room. Sorry about that. This may be a simple song but there are so many things that we can do with it within the framework of the form and harmony. One of my favorite versions is from the great pianist Oscar Peterson.