Bah humbug!! You guys are in the holiday spirit! I'm not a holiday guy at all and I'm dreading my Friday gig. We'll be in some guys mansion and we'll be playing tunes and of course someone will want Christmas tunes. some of them are pretty and I like Oscar's version of them. I'll play those, but I'm so not a holiday guy, this week won't be fun for me.

I do like listening to some stuff. Choirs and again Oscar. His Xmas cd is really cool I think. I'm also checking out what you guys are posting and that's fun. I'm just not into playing them myself! Scrooge huh?

Pretty cool original composition by the vibist from Berkeley High School Jazz Ensemble.

This tune (Birk's Works by Dizzy Gillespie) was posted on YouTube in June but originally video taped last year 2007.

BruceW

Well my friend Stefan (same name as me) and me had a session (bass&vibes) and we started working on some christmas carols. Dispite this recording being full of inacceptable flaws and displaying our poor level of musical skills I hope it just shows the fun we have with being bloody amateurs. And it can also be taken as a proof how incredibly good all the pros on this website are.

Cheers Stefan

I talk a little about bass lines and how to work on them.

When I started playing with 4 mallets, I had to choose which grip to use. I decided to use the Miceli grip because it seemed like an intuitive transition from using 2 mallets, where the inner mallets (mallets 2 and 3) usually handled the melody and the outer mallets (1 and 4) helped with the harmonies. It seemed to me that if you wanted harmony, it would be above the melody (e.g., a third), with mallet 4. As I understand the Burton grip, the melody is usually played with mallet 4. It didn't seem natural to me so I stuck with the Miceli grip.

Check this guy out!!!

It's several things. Your internet connection, traffic in your area, and us.

Since video happens over time, you need to get the data in a timely manner and that doesn't always work right.

On your end you might have cable internet which can be fast and slow depending on how many people in your neighborhood are on at the same time. Or you might have DSL and it just might not be a fast enough service.

On our end we need to learn more about video and how to stream and compress better. We're trying. We're working on some things now that might solve the problem.