I once again learned a valuable lesson. I learned about instrument sound. Using soft sticks and playing loud creates a lot of instrument noise.

I was in the studio with Diane Monroe playing duo. So nothing covering up my sound. I was hitting hard with my soft mallets. And we heard noise from the instrument. Partly from me playing over the damper bar. I had to switch to harder mallets to get the sound I wanted!

Here's a clip of Joe and I playing my original composition Hope. Joe plays a beautiful solo introduction on it as well as great lines over the Gb drone. Here's a copy of the lead sheet in case anyone wants to follow along: http://www.edsaindon.com/documents/hope.pdf

OK, so here is another related post with some images of my current setup... To even keep a trio going, unfortunately I still find it a big pain to transport vibes around. I have really refined my case situation over the years (packs into 3 cases, plus the end-frame), but I really wish it was lighter! The Yamaha YV3710 is a great pro instrument, but it is not very light.

Hey VW,

Tony is always encouraging folks to share what they are working on, and I like being able to do that on the site.

today i tried to practice be bop...

wow those abershold guys are so fast, i sucked on the head. it´s so difficult to think that fast on those bebop tunes...
if someone has a tip besides practicing slowly (i know and did it already but those abershold guys refuse to play it slow), i would be thankful :)

tarik

Here's an audio lesson on some tips for the blues. Attached is a vocabulary exercise, and a transcription of Milt Jackson's solo on Bag's Groove from Wizard of the Vibes. Enjoy!

Behn

Hey Vibes Workers. I wanted to share with you my new website. Please give it a look;

www.tylerblanton.net

Feel free to send me a note via the "Contact" page if you want to be added to my email list to be informed of shows in your area

-Tyler

"Cyclic Episode"- by Sam Rivers

Joe Doubleday- Vibraphone
Hoo Younghoo Kim- Bass
Angelo Spampinato- Drums

Marcel posted this exercise in a comment to barryk.

I thought I would turn it into the EOTM!

here's marcel's comment:
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I often look into exercises of rudimental or technical snare drum books to aply to the notes and caracteristics of vibraphone in different ways. This last days I took one to practice combination of simple and double strokes and I think that works very well to practice C major (or any mode with the same notes!).