I think I've told a couple of people that Pat Metheny is one of my favorite musicians/composers of all time. (I know its crazy). I just think his tunes lay really well with a percussion ensemble. I don't really want to sound like him, partly because I don't think its possible of the vibraphone, but I really respect him and his voice that he has found and the stuff he has accomplished.

My favorite stuff of his is his trio stuff with Sanchez and McBride. One of my goals has been to be able to play in a trio setting like he does.

I talk a little about quarter notes and how important I think they are and what's great about practicing them.

Ok More Symbiosis. I just thought I'd post it for something different. It's definitely trippy music. All Electronic. The thing to remember is Steve Giordano, John Swana and Bob Meashey are all musicians with huge ears, so this is a cool work out for me.

Again, try to play along with it. In fact record your self playing along with and listen to what you've added.

The one thing I've learned from Steve is the idea of assuming different roles. And synthesizers also help you do that. I've learned a lot by playing cool sounds on synths. This is where the Mallet Kat comes into play.

Here's another chord study on Beautiful Love changes.

Here are the steps I think you need to do to make this effective.

1. Analyze the chords against the original changes. The roots are the same even if they are not there. So analyze against the roots of the changes in the Real Book.
2. Play the tune a couple times
3. Play the chords your own way
4. Play the etude
5. Add rhythm to the etude

The pdf of the etude is attached.

Here's a chord study based on the tune Beautiful Love.

Here are the steps I think you need to do to make this effective.

1. Analyze the chords against the original changes. The roots are the same even if they are not there. So analyze against the roots of the changes in the Real Book.
2. Play the tune a couple times
3. Play the chords your own way
4. Play the etude
5. Add rhythm to the etude

The pdf of the etude is attached.

Hi all,

Remember this video I recently posted about vibist Les Blachut and his "adventures" on stage?

If not, you can find it back here:
http://www.vibesworkshop.com/video/vibist-les-blachut-%E2%80%93-show-mu…

Well I got another one from him on Facebook!

Sorry for the poor sound. Just keep an eye up to 1'02, and then 3'10! He just cracked me up! :o)

HELLO EVERYBODY. I AM FINISH (FOR NOW) MY PRACTISE ON COMPING IN ALL KEYS AND I START 2-3 WEEKS AGO CHORD SOLO AND SIMPLE BEBOP LINES IN ALL KEYS IN DIFFERENT PROGRESSIONS. SO FOR MY PRACTISE IT CAME THIS LICK. I THINK SOLO IN ALL KEYS IS VERY IMPORTANT SO I WILL CONTINUES PRACTISING FOR 2 MORE MONTHS, UNTIL MY BRAIN IS DESTROYED...
I WILL POST AUDIO OF MY WORK UNTIL KNOW.FOR NOW I AM STUCK ON CHORD SOLO IN (ALL POSIBLE) PROGRESSIONS...

THANKS
DIM

Hi All,

In Newsweek online, there's an article call "Jazz is Dead. Long Live Jazz" (see http://www.newsweek.com/id/226331). I'm not sure I can decode a coherent message from the article, but one of the comments seems to be about the friction between jazz's pop/dance music roots and it's art music present (and arguably last 40-50 years or so), and judging the quality of today's jazz vs. yesterday's on the basis of popularity is the wrong approach. It also seems to me that the article does better with "Jazz is Dead" than it does with "Long Live Jazz".

Hi all!

I've been working on What A Difference A Day Made for quite a long time already - here is what came out - many flaws of course, but heck it's a practice tape and I am an amateur.

Critics welcome, cheers STE