Had some fun yesterday in the home studio playing the classic "On the Sunnyside of the Street" on marimba and hi hats.

"Alfonsina y el mar" is an argentinian song written by Ariel Ramírez which I adapted to vibes from a flamenco guitar arrangement by Marcos Teira. The original rhythm is the zamba, from Argentina, but I play a flamenco rhythm called bulería, using the vibraphone like a guitar with arpeggios and dampened chords. The form is AAB and I played a little impro in the second AA. I hope you like it. Cheers!!!

Ton

Still working on time feel. It's coming. If you can snap it, I can play it !

Not everyone does the holiday music thing, but this is not your average Jingle Bells....great arrangement by Kim Pensyl for his album Early Snowfall we recorded last summer with homage to Miles's TuTu album. Kim Pensyl-piano, Rusty Burge-vibes, Rick VanMatre-flute, Mike Sharfe-bass and John Taylor-drums.

In this clip I'm improvising with Pentatonics over "On Green Dolphin Street".

In addition to Pentatonics, there are some Upper Structure Triads (USTs) and Four Note Groupings (FNGs) in there. USTs and FNGS are two of the chapters in "The Complete Guide To Improvisation - Volume Two" that was just released.

The improvised solo in this clip was later transcribed by German vibist Volker Heuken.

To view and download Volker's transcription and the chart that lists the Pentatonics being used in this clip, click on the link below.

I decided that I would try posting some very very short etudes.

It's the conquering of material and ideas and technical things that make us play better and better. It's certainly not a half assed attempt at something that makes us better. I think half ass attempts at things help us be better half assed players. Great attempts at things no matter how big or how small make us great(er) players.

So this should be our goal right? To master something. I tell my students, if you come in with only 4 bars completed, they have to be played really really well!

I'm working with a great student. We are talking about trusting his ears and how to make the switch. I think that's a big thing with students. The eyes seem much safer, and in some ways they are. But for improvisational music the ears are much more fun!!
You need to make the switch and trust your ears. You need to play melodies from your eyes and forget about the music. It's hard but it's important.