Wanted to share a short arrangement I did of Chi-Chi with my friend Alex on sax! The style change from bossa to swing in the head came funny enough from messing around singing the melody and body-drumming. It was a lot of fun to make and produce - I made it a goal to do something like this when the pop-up class started, and I'm happy I actually followed through with it.

Oh also, on that note, please pardon my absolutely incredible mixing/production skills, ha...still learning! Thanks for checking it out.

Hey Everyone!

New series on comping. In the first few of these lessons, I'm just going to be talking about rhythm while comping and techniques to get a good feel. Obviously, metronome work, recording yourself and listening back, playing along to records, etc. will all help you get a good feel in the minutia of things, so make sure to practice all that, but here are some interesting, tangible techniques to add into your comping to give it some more swing on the macro-level.

Let me know if anyone has any thoughts!

Hey everyone,

Here's another Bud Powell lick from his tune, "Bouncin' with Bud." I like this one because it's simple! I think it's super important when playing bebop to still construct melodies to ground the music, and Bud does that great.

Hey everyone,

Here's a solo vibes version of A Night in Tunisia I recorded the other day. Tried to keep the epic 16th note solo break, the interlude, and the shout chorus in my arrangement. I slow down a tiny bit on the solo break, but oh well -- I am not Bird yet!

This is a trio version of my dampening etude#7. I recorded it in 1969 with the band I had then, with Steve Khan, guitar, John Miller, bass and Marty Morel, drums. Steve just discovered the reel to reel tapes and got the name of an engineer from Randy Brecker, who digitalised it. I thought you all here would get a kick out of it because most of you have played etude #7 in my Dampening and Pedaling book.

Hey everyone, I'll see you tomorrow! 7pm EDT.

https://temple.zoom.us/j/9846618495

Thank you for having coffee with me today at the Vibes Workshop Coffee Vibe Hang! I enjoyed telling some of my stories and appreciate you all for hanging out. I look forward to learning more about you and getting to know all of you better.

These are three studio recordings I did just before the end of 2020 with a group I've been playing with for two years now. The group is led by Tyler Miles, a promising bassist in the Sacramento area and student at Sac State. Rounding out the group are Mackenzie McCarthy on tenor saxophone, Zach Martin on guitar, Gabe Carpenter on drums, and myself on vibes.

Hi Everyone,

Below is a post by a philosophy professor on what his experience of teaching online has been like during the pandemic year and what he has learned from it. I thought a lot of what he says is equally applicable to music education. So I am reposting it below. Discussion very much welcomed!

http://schwitzsplinters.blogspot.com/2021/06/what-zoom-removes.html

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Thursday, June 03, 2021
What Zoom Removes

Guest post by C. Thi Nguyen