Hello all,

This is my second lesson in the "How to Play Vibes Like" series. Among pianists, Red Garland is known for two things -- his left hand comping rhythm and his revolutionary block chord style, which, shortly thereafter, everyone from Oscar Peterson to Chick Corea copied. This lesson focuses on these huge block chords of his, and how to translate them to the vibes.

Suggested listening:

I am always asked how good or bad my € 100 DIY-pickup-system is.
http://wyndorps.de/Englisch/E_Pickups.html

This question is difficult to answer, since a lot has to do with personal listening impression and personal preferences. I now had the opportunity to record my playing simultaneously with two computers. The recordings were made with the freeware audacity on the computer.

The only change I made to the recorded signals is that I normalized all levels equally to -5 dB to make the sound pressure comparable.

I'm always wondering how to play a busy bebop tune and add chords.

I also don't think we have to play a lot of chords with a busy melody as busy melodies usually have a lot of information in them.

So I tried here to simply add only notes for the function of making sure the harmony was clear. I personally like this sound a lot.

Try to play it and see what you think.

Playing ballads is always a challenge; phrasing and tempo are crucial for expressing a song's essence. Fortunately, we can draw upon the way vocalists confront this for guidance. Billie Holiday, one of my favorites, recorded and performed a Duke Ellington classic, "Solitude", throughout her career. Here's my take on it.

Michael

An Oldie But Goodie - "Mack The Knife"

"Moon River" - Solo version from a hang with Joe Locke and Gustavo Agatiello. We’ve had quite a few of these weekend sessions and for me they have been so much fun, informative and inspirational. We can spend at least eight hours a day in the studio, come up for lunch and dinner, and then go back down to the laboratory, as Joe calls it, to play and talk about music. Lots of laughs along the way too.

Very simple but gets you improvising in minutes. And it's kind of fun!

A must watch.