Vibraphone

I just worked on this with a student. I wrote out some two five one progressions where the chords keep moving down.

Where chops come in is this: You practice this and work up speed. Play 2 5 1 6's in different keys. This would really help your chops!

I've attached the 'rough' pdf I made for the student.

Hi all,
I'm needing (quickly !) super-extra-soft mallets for vibraphone. Visiting the Mike Balter's site the 16R model is said for marimba use, anyone knowing if it would work fine with vibes ?
There's the Vibrawell V9R too. Any info about it ?
Do you know another VERY VERY soft vibes mallets ?
If yes, thank you in advance for your answers !!! :o))

Argh!

Well...I have taken an unplanned rest from Afro Blue because...

1) First, I forgot about a recording session I agreed to play marimba on, so I had to spend a weekend staying up too late and getting up too early trying to cram learning the part (luckily I'm an okay music crammer, so the composer was actually satisfied with my playing. Phew!). That was kinda dumb though, so next time someone wants me to record with them, I will make sure to learn the part in advance!

Neighbor tones!

Check out the PDF. As you can see, there are many ways to use NT's. They can easily become a vehicle for interesting lines both smooth and angular in your playing.

When looking at the PDF, remember that I left many out.

When you pick a NT pattern, learn it in all 24 keys, then start asking "if I like this, how can I change this slightly to be something else that I like?"
That's when you can apply devices such as...
-starting in a different rhythmic spot
-changing the direction of the line (up vs.down)
-changing the rhythm of the line

This was recorded at an informal gig where our regular bass player couldn't make it. We ended up reading some tunes out of the real book so we wouldn't make the bassist sight read some of the more difficult originals. I was reading "Deluge" for the first time (shame on me).

There are a few more videos of the band on the YouTube page:
http://www.youtube.com/user/GJQJazz

This doesn't need video or audio or anything. It needs discipline. And discipline is hard. I have back problems and when I do my back exercises I have no pain. And then I forget to do the exercises. And then let's not even get into food.

Bebop Tunes