I am learning Skylark and decided to have a duet with Tony while he was at my house. Bass and drums are Band-in-a-Box RealTracks.

Barry

Tony wanted me to come over his house to hang, and record the Arabesque that I am working on. Since I don't play vibes with graduated bars as well as non-graduated bars, Tony offered to come my house!

I had a lot of fun. I got to try out a bunch of different mallets and play a tune with Tony on piano with Band-in-a-Box RealTracks bass and drums.

This is with a special thought for Tony, who did a nice version of my buddy's tune (see below)

This is for Phillipe.

He posted the lead sheet for this tune and was hoping some of us would give it a shot. I laid back to see who might tackle this and when nobody did, I tried it.

Here are some etudes based on the tune Beautiful Love.

This etude is simple, but if it's new to you it will open up doors in your playing.

Rotate sticks 1 and 3 and then 2 and 4 with the double stops.

You're harmonizing your solo with one note. It's interesting, I think it's fun to listen to as a listener. You can use this in your comping, soloing, solo playing.

I've spent many an hour playing in this format. It is definitely based on what pianists do with lines and chords. We don't have 10 fingers so this is what we have to work with. It's a cool sound with bass and drums also.

I just finished an online lesson with a student and I thought, hmmm I should pass on the gist of what we were talking about which was if you're playing solo, or doing chord melody things on the vibes, play the melody first and decide how it swings and sounds best, then add the accompaniment around that.

I think I've probably said this many times already, but I thought it was worth passing on to everybody and even starting a discussion.

Here's a good version of etude 26 from Friedman's Dampening and Pedaling.

I am working on "Be Thou With Me" that Ted Wolff posted (above link). This is a work-in-progress.