This is to anyone who might be interested:
After considerable experimentation I've concluded that one way of playing vibes while seated is to use a hydraulic barstool and raise it to a point where the keyboard is slightly below the pelvic area. The swivel pedal, with a little practice, can be manipulated with the heel of either foot, after slanting the pedal slightly upward as opposed to its normal down position, with a wooden block or bed riser right next to the pedal and the toe rests on the block or riser with the heel slanted toward the center of the swivel pedal.

I was thinking about practicing and was asking myself how I could make practicing ii-V-I more interesting.

So I thought it would be cool to collect a list of ii-V-I licks from great players and work on them in all keys. Fortunately I've got the Charlie Parker Omni book and I'm looking through it and see a bunch of really nice lines over these changes. Transpose to all keys and use the Aebersold ii-V-I play-along and you've got a real interesting and structured way of honing your ii-V-I skills.

Check out Joe's solo here. It is smokin'!

Marie asked me if I could re-record the Bach Prelude 1 so that she could sing the Gounod Ave Maria on top of it. Of course I said "YES!".

With some planning over Skype, here is what we have to present to the VibesWorkshop.

I added tremolo to this version, and played along with metronomeonline.com with the headphones.

Turns out, after I recorded my track, I read that Gounod added an extra measure to smooth the chord changes, but Marie handled the Prelude version just fine!

Enjoy.

Barry

Hi ! I'm off today. To Gay Paree, where Marie waits for me. She'll show me around, and we'll paint the town, and I'll treat her to frogs' legs and fat juicy snails. CU !

It was great to read what your gang wrote about what I said about not being able to teach Jazz. What I got back was not really what I was looking for. I only heard all the cliches. Listen to a lot of jazz-use your ears-know theory and chords - anybody can improvise which happens to be true . It may not be the most melodic improvisation but it is improvising. Even what you said

I've never really developed a practice routine that seemed to produce a really full and rounding feeling after practicing. Especially entering the summer and getting away from school, when i'll have hours and hours to dedicate to practicing everyday, i want to develop something fairly concrete that I can base my practicing around. I feel like i'm missing some important aspects of my playing in my practicing because they get pushed aside for more immediate concerns, in particular sight-reading and ear-training. Any input on your practice routines would be great to hear.

I looking into buying a vibraphone, since i only use my school's right now. is there any light-weight vibraphone that you guys would suggest looking into??
thanks

hi all people
if there is anybody interesting I have my new cd release out
entitled "standards session"
I soupose soon there will some copies at the store but you can find it too here:
(there is many payment form and a couple of sound samples)
www.newstepsrecords.com

Listening to Bobby McFerrin's Prelude and Tony's Bach Cello Suite lesson, I wanted to try the Bach Prelude #1. Here's the best take of the day (5/29/10)

Barry