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Bach 2 part invention for vibes/marimba

This piece can be done solo (both parts) or as a duet. Because the melody is mostly arpeggios you can leave the pedal down a lot and get a nice full sound. There isn't much mallet dampening you need to do, again, because of all the arpeggios that make up the 2 parts. The tempo marking can be adjusted up or down as you need. The piece sounds pretty good either slower or faster, which makes it a great piece for players at all skill levels.

Almost 1 Year Old

August 1st vibes workshop will be 1 year old. It's been a very hard and fun year. I've mad so many friends from all over the world and we have this instrument in common. That's totally cool.

The site is slowly growing and things are starting to happen. I think next year will be an even better year. It's great that many of you are willing to support the site as you do. I think we're going to build something great.

Philippe Mace and Ed Saindon playing Hope, 5/7/09 Paris

Hi guys,

Here's a clip of Philippe Mace on marimba and me on vibes from the Paris performance on May 7th. We're playing one of my tunes titled Hope. You can view or download Hope here: http://www.edsaindon.com/images/pdf/hope.pdf

There's a clip of us playing Invitation, but it's not quite right in terms of the synchronization of the audio and video. Tony graciously said he would try to fix that. If he can, I'll post that as well.

Ed

The Music, You and the Night

I was practicing You and the Night and the Music, tonight and thought I'd whip something up for the site.

So here's a sort of duet. I figured out the vibe part and started messing around and adding some other parts and it turned into a sort of duet.

Also here is a practice take of me playing the vibes! I wasn't happy with the ending as you'll be able to tell by how I drop the sticks. Anyway, check out the etude and play along with the duet. It's lines and comping. You can listen to the midi part to see what it sounds like together and then play along with the 'no vibes' mp3.

Mallet Numbering

I have seen mallets numbered from left to right as 1-2-3-4 and 4-3-2-1.

To me, 1-2-3-4 makes more sense since that is how I read, from left to right.

What is the reason for numbering 4-3-2-1?

Since there seems to be no standard labeling, we should preface anything we write regarding stickings with the mallet numbering system is being used.

Barry

More From the 91 Year Old Vibe Payer

Angelo the 91 year old vibe player (maybe the oldest professional working vibe player) write me now regularly. He always asks me to post the letters for everyone to read!

here's the latest. he's really interesting and his advice is good! He always reminds me to eat from all three food color groups as in this letter.

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Rootless

Here's an interesting study. Print this etude out and learn it. At some point you should realize what tune it is.

Then realize that there are no roots in the chords except at the beginning and at one spot where I added it by mistake. Hopefully this should give you some insight into some of the things we've been talking about. That is playing chords without the roots and using the upper extensions to make the harmony.

Berklee Percussion Festival June 22-26 Boston

Time

Hi Everyone,

As part of the Berklee Percussion Festival, Dave Samuels, Gustavo Agatiello, Victor Mendoza, Nancy Zeltsman and me will be teaching vibes and marimba during June 22nd through the 26th. We have group lessons and ensembles scheduled during the days and various clinics and concerts scheduled throughout the week. Gustavo has a concert featuring a nice band in the Berklee Performance Center on Tuesday. Gustavo and me will be playing vibe duets during the registration period on Monday. All in all, it looks like a fun week.