So I've been practicing the tune Stablemates over the last week or so. It's an incredible tune and great to work on with solo playing.

I work on the head, the changes, I'll mess around with different keys (this was a 12 key tune for me a while back).

I'll record 20,30,40 or more solo versions of the tune. I'll listen back after I take a take. Analyze and work on things. It's amazing what you learn about yourself concerning time, phrasing and soloing.

Hola vibists!!

I post here a mail that I sent to Tony this morning. He propose to post it at the forum to see if Mario could answer and you others too.

I just bought a MalletKat. Now it is in Miami and a friend of mine will bring it to me next wednesday. I've never play a malletKat so, I want to ask you about mallets. The "answer" (should I say reponse?) of the mallets, ¿is the same like in a Vibraphone?.. I mean, with soft, medium and hard mallets or birch and rattan. I suposse is very different to hit a metal bar or to hit a malletKat bar.

A funny as my shredding video is, I did get some email about it. Asking questions about playing the blues. A couple requests for an 'etude'.

Well here's an etude. I do want to point out that there are guys much better than me at this, like Hendrix, Stevie Ray, Muddy Waters, etc. Those are the cats to check out and that's the stuff to cop. But maybe this will get you started.

Below is 4 minutes of this groove loop so you can mess around with it and you can play along with me on the etude.

There's been talk about the Mallet Kat here. Which to me means electronic music.

I know there are varying opinions on electronic music especially pertaining to the vibes.

Well check this out. It's not a midi vibes but this should show you the worlds and places you can go to.

This is one of the most incredible videos I've seen on youtube. And the thing is this is 10 years old maybe? I think. And look what Michael Brecker does.

Wow!

Gary has recently posted some great music by Astor Piazzolla, and that reminded me of a piece by another South American, Heitor Villa-Lobos. It's a popular composition titled "Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5", which was originally written for voice and cellos I believe. It works pretty well as a solo vibe piece. I've included an audio file and a pdf of the music. The pedal should follow the long melody lines, so you'll need to mallet dampen some of the left hand parts. A lot of the accompaniment is just arpeggios and you can let all that ring together.

Figured this would be worth checking out.

Bary asked me to write out a minor blues. So here it is. The audio is quantized, I love the original track. But the audio should give you an idea of what's up. This starts out as a single line and then works into 4 mallets.

One important thing. There's a one bar intro. Can you see it and hear where the tune starts.

ALSO - at the end of each chorus it goes ii V I. Well sometimes I use II7 V7 I and sometimes ii7b5 V7 I. Can you figure out which ones are which?

So check this guy out. He's playing a chinese (?) instrument with his equivalent of Aebersold, videoing it for youtube for all his buddies to check out. Somehow I stumbled onto this and thought, hmmmm.

What is that instrument? Way more geekier than the vibes! But way easier to pack up, huh?

Angelo is my hero. Check him out, 91 and he has a STEADY gig in an italian restaurant.

He sent me an email with his story. Check him out:

Brian Blade sounds so good on this!