This is an exercise that i decided to write down, in order to share with everyone here. The title " Keeping It Close," is a reference to a concept i try to keep in mind when i improvise, especially on fast tunes with many changes. In essense what i set out to do it play all of the changes of the tune with in an octave of the vibes, without jumping around at all. this concept came from listening to horn players like parker and coltrane, taking notice how fluid there lines are in a very small range, but yet they place the notes so the harmony of the tune and also a line is created.

Here is another tune that I am working on for my accordion/guitar jam. It is a Bossa Nova called "My Little Boat" by Roberto Menescal. This is a neat tune where the changes descend chromatically, so you get a chance to work on multiple keys within the same tune. Here are the changes that I worked out. Please correct me if I am wrong.

|BbMaj7|BbMaj7|Asus A|Asus A|
|AbMaj7|AbMaj7|Gsus G|Gsus G|
|GbMaj7|GbMaj7|Fsus F|Fsus F|
|Dm7 |Abdim |Cm7 |Adim |

Barry

Here is Gary France, our Australian member on his mallet kat playing life his composition "Repercussion".

Gary commented for us this picture from his Face Book album: "Repercussions was a film that I composed, a 42 min sound track. We then presented a version where I played a set of digital instruments, mallet KAT etc live with the film, along with an actor and dancer. I have quite a few more projects that I will post from time to time."

Very cool huh? Go Gary!! :o)

Man...I think this blog thing is really helping me. Tonight I wasn't going to spend a ton of time on Afro Blue, but then I said "No, I've got to work on that transcription so I can post!!!".

Let me introduce you to Gabriel "Slam" Nobles. He's a fine vibist from what I call the "Vibe Summit" team. He lives in California and I totally dug this picture of him! He nicely allowed me to post it here... to join the 'Picture of the Month' section of our next Newsletter! Go Mr. Slam!! :o)

Had the chance to see Chick Corea and Gary Burton and the Harlem String Quartet in Burlington VT last night. What a show. Great tunes, beautiful arrangements and unreal musicianship. The best part of the show, besides Gary Burton's unbeilably fluid lines (how can lines be so smooth?) was that all the musicians really wanted to share their music with the audience. They were into it! Thank you to Chick Corea and Gary Burton for continuing to Tour!

My wife took a picture while I was recording myself.
So here is my recordingstudio.

:-))))

greetings,
Stefan

thomas Mackay on vibes, John Zalabak on bass and kelvin underwood on drums, this is a tiny wine cellar that we play at twice a month. the place is so tiny the one nighter vibraphone barely fits in the place .. this is a tune by tmackay called herky jerky, improvisation over a D and Db tonality ..the melody is stated at the end of video

Alright...I need some motivation. Many times I have said to myself "Carolyn, you should transcribe more, it's great for your ear!" so I'll start working on something...AND NEVER FINISH IT.