🚨 Play a Great Blues in 3 Months – Week 3
Over the first two weeks, we focused on building a solid foundation:
• Clear guide tone movement in the left hand
• A stable and controlled upper voice
• Consistent Charleston rhythm
This week, we start introducing more functional harmonic movement into the blues.
You’ll notice a few important additions:
Here's a second part to the other lesson titled "A Way To Practice Soloing and Comping Together".
I took a couple other examples about how to practice this. Ultimately, you just do it and try to make music. I know for some of you it won't sound great in the beginning. I always think that if you keep doing it and doing it, eventually you play something good and recognize it and learn from it. Know what I mean????
Here is a lesson with an etude. I use the tune Green Dolphin Street and I play a chordal solo. There's very little that monophonic here. I tried to hit always with 2,3 or 4 mallets.
I played a few choruses of Green Dolphin Street and transcibed it.
I also talk about little bit about this series. I will continue it by doing a video for each of the technical ways I am doing this.
Check out the transcription below.
My mantra is 'Does it Sound LIKE THE SONG". If you remember that you have to make it sound like the song first and foremost then all your practicing is with that in mind.
Steve Weiss Mallet Workshop Preview Pt. 1 by Behn Gillece
Older players have to really think about there hands. Esp if you're coming back to the instrument in retirement.
Great lesson to break into playing tunes solo.
Here are links to all the other vids:
This is a solo vibe piece Tony Miceli commissioned me to write for him. Let me know what you guys think! These are the program notes I wrote for the piece:
This piece was written in April of 2024 upon commission from Tony Miceli, professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. While taking private lessons with him, we began experimenting with timbral effects on the vibraphone, and one of my assignments was to write a solo vibraphone piece surrounding this idea. Thus, this piece was born.
Great lesson to break into playing tunes solo.
Here are links to all the other vids: