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Sam's Song by Joe Locke & Christos Rafalides

The first time I saw this Duo was at a marimba Festival. I had my mouth open the entire concert. I was just totally blown away by them!!
Since that day I hear and feel music in a totally different way. Joe and Christos are two amazing musicians that put their hearts in every note they play.
Check out their CD as a duo: "Van Gogh by Numbers". Incredible!!

Tony (Mr. Music/ Mr. Vibraphone)

Tony,
You're the absolute greatest! You've figured out how to do it all. I enjoy checking in with www.vibesworkshop.com every day now to see what's new and old in the vibe world. I get a lot of great new practice ideas and teaching ideas from your site.

You're an artist's artist and I hope your subscribers realize what a gem you are to our scene - especially that of the vibrapnone. Thanks for keeping at it to the point of this excellent web site!

Creating the MBrace

Here is a step by step video series showing how to build the MBrace.

Anyone wishing to build a pair of MBraces should go to www.johnmarkpiper.com to purchase the complete MBrace plans ($15.00). The plans include instructions and drawings necessary to complete the project. OR you can become a SUBSCRIBER TO WWW.VIBESWORKSHOP.COM and have full access to the drawings here.

Difficulty

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New Rainbow Recording

Hey Tony,

This is the best of the Rainbow attempts I've made in the last few days. I tried to incorporate as much as I could from the ideas you gave me in the lesson. I'm still a little confused though about the substitution going on in the first few bars....the A-7b5 D7b9 G-7...but you're right, I have heard it played like that before.

I'm actually pretty jammed today...do you have any time available tomorrow? If not we can do it early next week...I have plenty to practice until then :-)

Vince Guaraldi (Lesson Plan)

(This is a piece I wrote and have named it after the great composer Vince Guaraldi. The lead sheet is here, as well as an etude where you can work on different aspects of solo playing.)

This will be a multi part lesson. The actually lessons are listed right above here.

Part 1 is the arrangement with no chord symbols. You try and figure them out.
Part 2 I'll add the chord symbols.
Part 3 I'll play the piece and solo on it for you to hear.
Part 4 I'll write out a single line solo for you play and study

What instruments does this pertain to?

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Don't Transcribe, Don't Do It!

Made you look!

I decided to go back and transcribe Coltrane's Giant Steps solo again. I did it a LONG time ago! It's like when you re-read a novel that you read 25 years ago, it's kind of like new, but there's something familar as you go along.

I'm doing this and thinking about all the guys who say, don't transcribe and I'm thinking, wow, from my perspective that's so ridiculous.