Mark Carlsen on upright bass and myself on vibes playing at Li's Asian restaurant in Haverhill, MA this past Saturday. Fun gig playing and hanging with Mark. We've been playing these kinds of duo gigs for a long time. It's always a fun night playing tunes and hanging with family and friends on the breaks. Sometimes I like these gigs more than a concert. The music is loose, you can try things and experiment/stretch. As long as we can play what we want and no one bothers us, I'm happy.

Another bit of practicing in between videoing lessons.

So, for those of you who don't know me, Ms. Magnolia is my somewhat recently acquired (and in the process of being revived) Deagan Imperial model 55C. This week she taught me a valuable lesson that I think probably could be learned by others, so I will share it.

Modern instruments are excellent. In fact, they are so good, they made me lazy.

Modern instruments have all the rattles, squeaks, weird overtones, etc engineered out of them to the highest degree possible. That is awesome. That is why they sound so good. It has an odd negative side effect.

Here is part two of the guide tones etude. Notice more have been added, with approach tones getting in and out of them.

Just messing around between lessons.

I learn more about solo vibes from guitar than any other instrument. I think we have the same problems.

This album inspires me and i learn about solo vibe playing from things like this. What do you guys think?

Chinese translation for Chinese students
每過一段時間，就自己錄影，檢視自己的手法，
看看有沒有不好的習慣已經養成了。
確保自己沒有在養一個壞習慣。

Chinese translation for Chinese students

要如何確保每天完整練到、學到東西！！！
就是假裝有觀眾在場！
像是，如果你練了一個項目兩個小時，比如blues，
在這兩個小時結束後，不管如何，你要確保自己假裝有一個小表演，所以把剛剛練的東西不能停下來的一次演完，就算有錯誤，也讓它過去。
如果你做每天這個練習，會有很大的幫助，