After you know the chords and the melody what are some ways of assembling tunes?

I believe that without a foundation with the tune, it's going to be hard to 'tame' it. Even though I don't always practice what I preach, knowing the melody and practicing it is a great way to begin this process. I think we can get a lot out of playing the melody over and over. I think most of us (including me) don't put enough time into the process.

Check Out Mike!! Great playing.

Check out Behn Gillece! He's a great vibes player!

A Train Lesson 2.

I made a mistake on the bridge. I left out one or 2 chords depending on how you look at it. I decided to leave the lesson as is and let you guys figure out what's missing. The lesson still works but I the chord I left out, that is didn't mention verbally is a pretty important chord. Let's see if you can figure it out. The clue is it's on the bridge somewhere.

Check out the lesson.

This is for Barry! Here's a slow mo' of 4 in 1 with a really nice stick drop at the end. (Inside joke for long time, vibesworkshop members).

Maybe this will be of some help with the etude.

I left the sticks after the throw up there for all to examine. You see I can tell the future by how the sticks fall onto the vibes. And I see a lot of good vibe playing in the future for everyone based on that throw.

Practicing tunes in other keys is a great exercise. Recently Tony and I had a short discussion on the benefits of transposing. It reminded me of "Comrade Conrad", a beautiful Bill Evans tune that actually moves up a 5th to a new key every chorus! The transition to a new key is so smooth the listener may not even be aware that the tune is moving through all 12 keys.

Very simple but very powerful

Stéphane was a subscriber online here for a long time. He went on to focus on the hand drums, but he's a really good vibe player. Check him out. We miss him (known as Tifoo on the site)

I've lost a couple gigs recently because they Island I was to go to did not have a set of vibes on it! So I emailed Gary about traveling with a set of vibes. I don't think he'd mind if I posted his response. Sounds like the way to go is with a Traveler set of vibes and cases. Here's his reply:

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Hi Tony,

Hey all,

I ran into this clip on YouTube, and thought I should share it.

I love Hamp, but he was not a player I listened to a lot as a student. However, I appreciate him more every day and I found this clip to be awesome. Really in his prime here. Listen to how hard these guys are swinging!

SS