Vibraphone

All about playing solo!

This is a series of ideas, ways and techniques for you to consider when playing solo.

This is really open to other faculty and other pro players on the site. I'd love to get something from some of these other amazing players and put together a comprehensive series on solo playing!!!

Under ALL LESSONS are some examples of people playing solo. (If I've missed anything please let me know).

Then there are lessons specific to each players level.

The Theme from Law & Order, as performed by my band TUCKSY. This will also be on our upcoming record "Let's Start The Show".

Dan McCarthy, vibes
Tuey Connell, banjo
Dan Loomis, bass
Fred Kennedy, drums

www.tucksy.com

A video of my band TUCKSY performing at Caffe Vivaldi in NYC. The tune is called Nothing Is Lost, and it is on our upcoming record "Let's Start The Show".

Dan McCarthy, vibes
Tuey Connell, banjo
Dan Loomis, bass
Fred Kenedy, drums

www.tucksy.com

Everyone says to avoid hitting the bars at the nodes. Well, I wanted to see what it would sound like in a musical context. Enclosed is my experiment. The idea was to play over Am on the nodes in one phrase, then answer over other changes with a more hollow tone on the middle of the bars. Playing at the nodes is neat because you can hit it hard and hear the attack of the mallet but the notes sound like they are in the distance or as if a low-pass filter is applied to the sound. Does anyone else use this technique?

(We've been talking about Theo Milkov on the site. Here is his teacher performing. - tony miceli)

Bars, resonators and their tuning.

Base of the vibes' sound ofcourse are the bars, and in a huge amount the (tuning of) the resonators.
I'll try to explain in the next article how to tune the bars, how to tune the resonators, and how to get the best benefit from the resonators.

Bars.

It is widely know that vibe bars have their fundamental tuned, and the first overtone to a double octave.