Most Popular Lessons

Hello all!

I’m taking a little break from the “how to play vibes like” lessons and am doing a couple beginner-oriented ones on ending tunes, although I think everyone can probably get something from them. This lesson is really for anyone who has ever been on a gig or at a jam session where at the end you all just kind of fizzled out in an unsatisfying, anticlimactic way, and wants a better alternative for the future. It’s also for anyone who just wants more creative options to end tunes.

For my lessons with Tony, he asked me to get some modal practice in. This has been a really fun way to learn my modes more intimately, and work on my time feel!

Hey everyone,

I think this is pretty cool. "Pitch bending" is something I've been messing around with on the vibes, especially in a blues context, but also in ballads and really any setting you want. Let me know what you think!

Here is David Friedman's Etude 9 from "Friedman-Vibraphone Technique: Dampening and Pedaling".

Line Building Blocks Exercise

Here is one chorus of Just In Time, unaccompanied.

It's best if you transcribe it, then use my pdf to check it.

Regardless of how you learn the solo, you should memorize it. Then play it for a few days and then start moving it around the keys.

This is really the stuff where you can learn.
Start working on your ears and transcribe. Spend time with the solo and think about the chords in each key. You have to see the notes in the context they are in. 9s, b5s, 13s, etc. And then build up vocabulary through your ears.

Hey everyone,

I'm starting a new series on solo vibes arranging, where in the first part, I'll give an arrangement in the form of sheet music, and in the second part, I'll walk through it, note by note, explaining why and how I'm picking voicings, textures, etc. I hope this gives everyone ideas on arranging tunes on their own, as well as giving a tangible arrangement to play on gigs or for practice.

As this is the second part on "Easy to Love," I'll be posting an explanation video.

Hey everyone,

Here's part two in the little diminished lesson series. In this lesson, I'll show you how to better think of flat 3 diminished chords to give you more melodic material.