Here's a lesson I wrote years ago on Misty. I had permission from the owner who was Erroll Garner's wife. Then it turned out that she sold it to Warner Brothers. I contacted Warner Bros. and I paid them and they issued me a license for the licensing giving me permission for this lesson and then I got a letter from Hal Leonard stating that they owned the rights to it so I just gave up. But I think it's okay to share with y'all.

Here is a blues article I wrote many years ago. It's a different approach than what I learned at Berklee which I believe caused me to overthink the blues. I taught it quite successfully to many students so if you're starting out or struggling to express in the blues form and style, give this method a go. Once this basic idea of the blues is in your ears and hands, it's much easier to add more sophisticated things on top of it.

Don't always look for reasons and explanations as to why to do something.

But I can take most of the tunes I know and play 3rds and 7ths only. Can you?

I used to really check out anything a great player could do and then I would do it. I didn't give a flying %$%$ why or what or harmonically this or that. I just saw they were doing it and I wasn't and couldn't. I figured if I was great then I could do it. That was my why to do it. Get it?

Who is Gene Estes?

I saw this title of his record and knew nothing about him and just thought I'd buy it for the arrogance of his title. I've started to listen to it and man he sounds good so far! Serious cat!

Do you guys know about him? There's no recording of this on Youtube. And I think no cds, only this old record I found.

Tell me about Gene Estes.

I downloaded a lead sheet last night and started learning this.

This morning I've been trying to learn/practice it in different tempos; I'll upload two of those tempos here. While it was fairly quick to learn, the challenge for me is the swing, the feel. And really locking in the time. So I'll keep working on it!

This first video is of the slightly faster tempo. I'll load the slower one next...

Obviously, work to do. Onward!

Balafon to Vibraphone: a unique path to new ideas

I wanted to share some thoughts about my balafon lessons and how they might connect to your primary instrument: vibes, marimba, piano, etc.

A beautiful bossa composed by Luiz Bonfá, featuring my newly designed leather mallets.