I don't post much but now that I'm studying with Tony, he said that I have to share this on the site. I sent a dvd of me playing to PAS last year to apply for the Terry Gibbs scholarship and I got an email yesterday saying that they have selected me as the winner. I'm pretty excited about it and thought I should share this on vibes workshop. They also said that they're going to put me on the site which would be pretty cool.

Hey guys, thought you might enjoy this performance of How Insensitive from last week in philly!

www.mikepinto.net

While I am not really a student on the board, I have in the past posted a couple of videos including the infamous Big Sneeze. There was more than the sneeze but that is another story.

One of my favorite groups of all time. nuff said.

Sugar by Stanley Turrentine

Playing on the blues (or bluesish tunes like Sugar) always give me a hard time because there are so few key areas to work with. A tune like Stella pulls you right along with the key centers changing frequently. If you can just "make the changes" you are doing pretty well. Playing on tunes with very simple harmonic structures demands a very different skill. Timing and phrasing are really important. You need to pace your solo so that it has very good structure, form, and development.

Hi all,

Did you notice, Tony just posted his first video taken from the music school he teaches in. And you know, he doesn't only teaches vibes... He has entire classes of students of all kinds to deal with, trying to pass them on the 12 "Key law", and above all his incredible swing!

But what he ignores, is that when he left the room today after recording that Donna Lee quick vid, the camera went on and recorded the next lesson...

Our special "spy reporter" sent us this very confidential document: in exclusivity for you on vibesworkshop!

Enjoy!

- MN :o)

I'm at school right now and I had a few minutes with the camera on. So I thought I'd play a very rough and quick version of Donna Lee, the etude I have posted here.

I think if anything the etude will lead to you thinking about using double stops in your lines to get the chords happening.

I also have a version over Bud Powell's Celia that I'll post soon.

I do spend a lot of time playing solos 'in slow motion' and seeing where I can add things in. That's what is fun about this instrument, it can be sort of like a puzzle.

I've been working on some bebop heads and just using them to work on my left hand. My thought is, if that gets comfortable with smackin' down double stops, that that will help my four mallet playing and enable me to do some fun things over lines.

It's not a big deal, but it's something I think about and have fun with. It's as if you're playing a line that is primarily a single line and with your left hand you're slipping in double stops. I thought it would make me more fluid.

I'm going to be in New York City from Sept 19 thru 23, tagging along with my wife who is traveling for work. I'd love to catch some live jazz while I'm there.

Any VW members gigging in NYC in that timeframe? Barring that, does anyone have any recommendations in terms of clubs that I might hit and catch a good set? Living in little Sheboygan, Wisconsin I don't often have the opportunity to hear live jazz music so I want to make the most of my time out in the real world.

-Adam

If I had to sum this lesson up in one sentence: Play the melody in all keys.

Also in a lesson, I would ask you to tell me things about the melody. I do some of that here in this lesson.