Skip to main content

I Love Steve Nelson!

Maybe not a very good title but I can't help it. I've been starting up my practice routine for 2 days now and started transcribing a steve Nelson solo on 'Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me'. It's Blowing me away!! I posted a part of his solo on But Beautiful on the same cd 'Full Nelon' a while ago(see check this out) and the thing that really blows me away is his timing. It really reminds me of Milt, weaving through the changes and swinging like hell.

My Therapist

One of my favorite therapists, partly because she was cute and a large part because she was GREAT, taught me a big thing about music.

I remembered it today on my walk. I used to(still do a little) take all my problems and NOT solve them and then wrap them up into one big global problem. We used to unwrap them together. It was a great experience to see all your problems unraveled and then to realize that if you solved a bunch of them this big huge problem would usually go away. Which ones I used to ask her, should I solve. She'd say any of them.

work continues

Long time ago since the last entry.

The glockenspiel is now fully in production and will be our first instrument that can be sold from stock. It turned out a killer instrument, I guess it's the only glock out there to play jazz vibes on ;-)

In the meantime we've also started and are now completing the new entry level vanderPlas Baileo vibe.
This 3 octave vibe uses the glockenspiel frame design and production method which is a very efficient method.

Good Ear Training Exercise

Ok, so download this file below. Burn all the tracks to a CD or put them on your ipod. Then set to shuffle. Listen and play the note back. Use the pause button if you need to. This should be a daily thing for a bout 5 or 10 minutes most days of the week!

This will help you get to know your instrument and work on your ears.

Try it and let me know what you think of it.

Forum Topic: Classical Vibes Repertoire Suggestions?

Hello fellow vibists,

I hope I posted this in the right section! I am looking for some suggestions of classical pieces for vibes. I play mostly jazz, but while I was in college I played classical marimba, for example Keiko Abe pieces. (Ah, I miss having access to a marimba!) Anyway, I am looking to broaden my vibes repertoire with a variety of modern classical pieces.

I appreciate any suggestions you have, thanks!

-Jenn

I Remember You Practice Tapes by Tony Miceli

I'm sure as everybody knows, I've been working on the Tom Harrell solo I posted here. I was blown away by it's simplicity and beauty. I think everything comes out of simplicity. It is possible to learn this later on as I did and lots of students do!

We're all blown away by Burton playing Chega. And we're blown away by how simple he makes it. That's one type of simplicity. It's complicated but Burton makes it sound simple.

Invitation Lesson Plan

Here's a lesson plan for Invitation.

A great way to study this tune in pieces. Each lesson in the beginning will focus on one part of the tune. Later we put it all together and focus on the tune as a whole and work on improvising on it.

What's great about Invitation to study is the A section is sort of a modal section and the B section are changes. The same changes in lots of other tunes like, Cherokee, Laura, and others that mention in the lessons.

What instruments does this pertain to?

Difficulty

Access