Improvising on the B Minor Double (Sonata II) from Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for Violin Solo. One of my favorite books of music from Bach which is perfect for vibists. Fun and great practice improvising over the changes to classical pieces like this. Sometimes I'll do this with my students at Berklee. We'll select a piece of music, analyze the progression, write in the chord progression and begin to improvise.

Original composition for vibraphone from my CD Vibe from New York

Here's an excerpt from a clinic where I talked about voicings and harmony. All the great players have a solid grasp of voicings and harmony. I remember Gary telling me in lessons way back that every voicing should have something interesting about it whether it be an unusual tension, shape, interval,...In a lot of solo vibe performances I hear the changes but the harmony is too bland. It's especially important to sound a tension on a Dom 7 chord. You wouldn't hear a solo pianist or guitarist sound the changes without any color.

hi all,

hoping to get this tune refined for this summer as i have a couple of concerts.
thanks tony for writing a great and challenging piece!

hey,
i just was asked to arrange some pop tunes for percussion ensemble. i tried to figure out a good marimba comping for billy jean by m. jackson. since we got only vibes,marimba and xylo as voices i need to put as much in it as possible. so i stumbled on this cheap sounding but very hard to play independence thing (at least for me)....on piano this would be so easy :)

would you like to play it fast for 4 minutes also on different chords? :)

tarik

I just discovered this guy, I like his "balanço"...and his sound

Hi All,
Well, we went from hardly spring to full-bore summer. It's 90 degrees today (Saturday) and we expect the entire week to be that hot. If you're at the shore, that's the place to be!