Finals are this week. The final is to play a clear simple solo over St. Thomas in several keys and play it solo. Harder than it looks.

Then I hung out with James and talked about quarter notes.

Then I did a lesson on quarter notes, based on James' lesson.

Talked to Andrew a little about it in his lesson as well.

So last night I decided to play a simple version of How Deep is the Ocean, based on all that. You know that's my goal, to be able to take simple and nice solos over tunes and do this solo. I just want to make as much musical sense as I can and get my message across.

This is the recording from the percussion ensemble performance. My percussion instructor is pretty cool. He doesnt know anything about jazz but he knows about technique and he lets me do whatever. He lets me arrange tunes and play what I want.

I think I've told a couple of people that Pat Metheny is one of my favorite musicians/composers of all time. (I know its crazy). I just think his tunes lay really well with a percussion ensemble. I don't really want to sound like him, partly because I don't think its possible of the vibraphone, but I really respect him and his voice that he has found and the stuff he has accomplished.

My favorite stuff of his is his trio stuff with Sanchez and McBride. One of my goals has been to be able to play in a trio setting like he does.

I talk a little about quarter notes and how important I think they are and what's great about practicing them.

Ok More Symbiosis. I just thought I'd post it for something different. It's definitely trippy music. All Electronic. The thing to remember is Steve Giordano, John Swana and Bob Meashey are all musicians with huge ears, so this is a cool work out for me.

Again, try to play along with it. In fact record your self playing along with and listen to what you've added.

The one thing I've learned from Steve is the idea of assuming different roles. And synthesizers also help you do that. I've learned a lot by playing cool sounds on synths. This is where the Mallet Kat comes into play.

Here's another chord study on Beautiful Love changes.

Here are the steps I think you need to do to make this effective.

1. Analyze the chords against the original changes. The roots are the same even if they are not there. So analyze against the roots of the changes in the Real Book.
2. Play the tune a couple times
3. Play the chords your own way
4. Play the etude
5. Add rhythm to the etude

The pdf of the etude is attached.

Here's a chord study based on the tune Beautiful Love.

Here are the steps I think you need to do to make this effective.

1. Analyze the chords against the original changes. The roots are the same even if they are not there. So analyze against the roots of the changes in the Real Book.
2. Play the tune a couple times
3. Play the chords your own way
4. Play the etude
5. Add rhythm to the etude

The pdf of the etude is attached.