Most Popular Lessons

Playing beautiful 3 and 4 mallet chordal rolls is a goal all vibes and marimba players should work toward. Yes, vibes players mostly use the pedal to sustain notes, but sometimes using a roll is better. Here is a simple, easy to learn method you can use to play really nice rolls for 3 and 4 part chords. The trick is to have each mallet strike the bar at a different time, creating smooth legato sound.

I've been thinking about transcribing these days as I work on a Tom Harrell solo.
I dig Joe's philosophy.

We have a new trumpet site up with Joe and I asked him if I could post his trumpet video on transcribing. He said yes.

When Bobby Hutcherson heard Joe Magnarelli play his reply was: 'Man that cat can spell!'.
I love that quote!

This doesn't need video or audio or anything. It needs discipline. And discipline is hard. I have back problems and when I do my back exercises I have no pain. And then I forget to do the exercises. And then let's not even get into food.

Bebop Tunes

Just a quick video talking about a conceptual sort of thing. Working on going from here to there!

Ways to practice scales.
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Chinese translation for Chinese students
第一件事，如果你要打8度上行，可以試著打到第九音在下行，這樣聽起來比較悅耳。

再來可以練習小調，Dorian（大調降3,7）, 旋律小音階Melodic minor scale。

等到你熟了一點後，可以打在不同的調上，可以用半音轉調練各種不同調，或是用四度轉調。

Raphael is going to be posting etudes on the site, one a month for subscribers. Here's the first one! He's putting it in Sibelius and as soon as it's done I'll get it on the site.

But check this etude out. This cat can play!!

Here's a 2 part study of the tune solar. In part 1 I teach you the tune. In part 2 we talk a little more about it and we play together through the tune in a couple different keys.

If you work on the lesson plan, your final exam :-) is to play solar in a different key and upload it here!

I talk a little about bass lines and how to work on them.