Hello to everyone:

Check it out this video where I accompanied one of my students during a lecture to promote in Spain the “IV Workshop de Improvisación e Vibráfono” and the “European Vibraphone-Festival & Workshop 2016". When one my students (called Sergio, 14 years old) watched the duet of David Frideman and Tony Miceli playing "Samba de Orfeo" and he did not stop to ask me if he could prepare, so, this is part of the performance recorded by the audience.

https://soundcloud.com/delphicmaxims/star-wars

Hey Everybody
In honor of the release of Star Wars Episode VII my friend Paul Sottnik and I recorded a Jazz arrangement of the Star Wars Theme.

Enjoy
Delphic Maxim is a Duet Project with
Paul Sottnik on Piano
Frank Valente on Vibes

Star Wars Theme Credits....
Themes and Melody by John Williams
Arranged by Valente and Paul Sottnik

This is being translated for Chinese students.

歡迎來到vibesworshop.com，這是“每月一曲”時間，這個月我們要學 Green Dolphin Street和You Don't Know What Love Is。此時，我們已經練習這兩首曲子很久了，甚至已經超過一個月，我要問的是，你知道這兩首曲子的弦律嗎？最近我告訴我很多學生，如果你可以走到樂器前面然後就（演奏出 Green Dolphin Street美妙旋律）如果你沒辦法演奏這個曲子的旋律，你就是不懂這首曲子。對我來說這是第一步：你能夠演奏出旋律嗎？所以考慮到這點，當你每次在練習“每月一曲”時，你要確定，你能夠演奏出曲子的旋律。然後，我說過這件事五百次，你在演奏旋律的同時，要把旋律處理得非常乾淨並且在拍子上，這樣也能順便增進你的技巧。不要覺得你學習這個旋律沒有用，你要想的是，你有沒有把這個東西（弦律）處理好？如果你把旋律處理好，等於你學到了很大部分的東西。

I was messing around with dampening yesterday and discovered a cool trick to make a "bending" sort of sound.

Basically, (1) play any note at a low volume, then (2) play the note a half step or a whole step above at a higher volume and immediately dampen it after with the same mallet you hit it with. The effect is that you hear the sequence E-F-E (e.g.) as three distinct but smoothly connected notes, even though you've only attacked two.

THE HANG IS HERE CLICK HERE

A very special hang this Sunday at 12 noon. Unlike the other vibe hangs, this is a pro hang. I picked 4 great vibe players and asked them to come and play for about 30 minutes. So it's a little more like a sort of concert.

This week will be myself, Behn Gillece, Anthony Smith and Randy Sutin.

It's online so you can watch at home. If you are in the Philly area and want to come buy, just let me know in advance.

Here's part 3 of lessons where the focus is the process of learning a tune. I'm using Coltrane's "countdown" as the example.

Hi all – sometimes it's intimidating to post – because there are so many GREAT musicians/vibist on this site – but I see it as motivating. Please know: I am practicing an audio software for a class that I teach and thought it would be a good idea to record my efforts on the piece by Tony Miceli titled "watermarks" only up the improv section! anyway there's obviously accuracy issues and this week I'll slow it down get into the woodshed and workout phrasing issues – but let me know what you think anyway. (Especially Tony) thanks for commenting if you have time