This year at University of Delaware, the xylophonists joined forces with the vibists for one epic, 2-hour long mallet concert.

https://youtu.be/FU0v2hBP8lI?list=PLnbYe45A-Af7NdbDeg-JbeV4dN7dFoTW1

Great étude – will try to post a better performance next week. Had accuracy issues – and first time I was trying my tablet with a Bluetooth pedal for turning pages :-) not that pedaling and dampening and learning music is hard enough. it was quite an experience – that I might only try at home! :-)

Obviously I will practice slower and stay relaxed – thoughts???

We are updating the site. Well we've (Stephen) been updating it for 2 years. The software upgrade from 6 to 7 is so dramatically different we've had to rewrite code (well Stephen does) and sort of work from the ground up. It's soooo much work, it's driving me crazy.

I'm a little light on my lessons for the site and this is partly why. Stephen has written a few thousand lines of code JUST to move the database. Drupal (software) is a drag.

It's really come close to giving up a couple times, but we're (he's) still at it.

Stu Balcomb, who wrote this tune, was a Berklee vibes student in the 1970s. He went on to become a very successful L.A. composer, doing film scores and arranging.

Ay! Arriba! is a delightful little tune that he wrote in his Berklee days. I've always enjoyed playing it.

Working on this beautiful song today at home on the vibes. There are so many great versions of this song. Favorites include versions by Chet Baker, Frank Sinatra, Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans and Brad Mehldau. I Fall in Love Too Easily" is a 1944 song composed by Jule Styne with lyrics by Sammy Cahn.

Enjoyed learning this étude – still need to go back to the woodshed and shape dynamics/and groove to name a few :-). I believe my book has a misprint. For example, b section (six measure in) I play C sharp ... But I believe it should be tied so it stays "C natural" thoughts?

A little duet I recorded just now with myself and a drum track. Been trying to get some different sounds lately.

So, first things first… I learned something very important yesterday. I need to hit the woodshed playing chromatic scales. I suck. ☺

OK… beyond that, here are the files and a few notes from the recording workshop yesterday. For those who are reading this online and who were not there, I did a short presentation in Delaware for the students at Tony’s weeklong workshop. The focus of my session was recording the vibes and related issues. We discussed a bunch of things, one of which was mic choices. These are the audio files we created.

DEMOa