Most Popular Lessons

Two choruses playing the melody along with the accompaniment.

Feel free to change the rhythms of the melody and try to embellish the melody with grace notes, passing notes, fills, etc.

In terms of the accompaniment, try to get the harmony (including tensions) across either with voicings or counterpoint.

Try to get both hands to help each other out. The left hand can come up to help the right hand play the melody and the right hand can go down to fill out a voicing along with the left hand. Also, dampening is important when playing counterpoint against the melody.

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.

Hey guys,

I was working on something today, and decided to make it into a little video for VW... my first lesson here.
Hope u enjoy.

Steve

I was messing around with settings on my camera and trying to find some quicker ways to shoot video and I made a lesson up. Simple but you guys might dig it. Wasn't easier and had some trouple with the cam, but consider it a QDV (Quick and Dirty Video).

Just a reminder not to spend an inordinate amount of time on technique, and to think of musical ways to practice technique. After all the goal is to make music. That should be part of your practice routine! There are ways to incorporate technical practice in a musical way!

Following after Behn's footsteps. He just finished a lesson on Sus chords and used Maiden Voyage to play over.

So I thought I'd follow up with a couple other exercises to use on the tune Maiden Voyage.

Quasimodo is a contrafact based on Embraceable you. It's a beautiful melody.

Your assignment is to learn the melody and play it well! Record it and upload it. Just the melody is fine. You will get a lot out of this as it's a melody to a tune but also a great solo in a way. Lots of bebop tunes sound like great solos!

barryk found this video. Here's an example of the traditional grip and a great rendition of a Piazzolla piece 'Nightclub'.

I thought about one thing about Piazzolla and his success. First of all the music is beautiful. I also thought that maybe for classical musicians it was a rare opportunity to play around with 'jazz' harmony. I can't think of better word, but you guys get the idea. The Tango and the Bossa Nova and Samba all use jazz harmonies and I know classical players like to play arrangements of them.

What do you guys think?

The concept of lazy voicings can help you find NEW voicings. When you play lazy voicings you move voicings to the next chords closest notes. This can even help you get away from the root which is a voicing suprisingly you can usually omit, ESPECIALLY with a bass player.