This is a really pretty etude and will give you an intro into dampening and moving chords around. This is a great study which will really help your playing.

In this etude the dampening is pretty much left up to you. You decide what rings and what doesn't. Go for clean lines. Everything can be dampened.

Etude No. 7 for me is the first etude in this book that's perfect for a recital. It incorporates all the dampening and pedaling discussed so far in an etude that really sounds pretty.

In the book Dave says that he's indicated stick no. 4 to play some of the bass notes instead of no. 3. I recommend that you use the 4th mallet as much as possible when playing bass notes. Especially with my grip, however I would think for all of them. Get used to using all the mallets comfortably.

Also in this etude, it's up to you to decide where to put the dampening.

In this section we'll tackle the blues!

Here's a simple study to get you started with the 'bebop' blues. I always thought of the 'Blues For Alice' changes as a rebellion against the blues. Maybe this is not accurate but it explains a couple things for me personally. When you play over the 'Blues for Alice changes' your solo shifts away from the traditional blues scale and becomes more complicated. Scales and harmonic challenges really come into play. This is what the beboper's were all about thought, right? Making things much more complicated, that is, lines, chords and rhythms.

In this section you'll find all online LESSONS. Most of them are naturally only available for subscribers, except for the Dampening & Pedaling part where you can listen to all Friedman Etudes posted by members and comments from David himself and others.

This lessons book is a huge and complete resource, still new lessons are added every day. So you might consider it as in "constant building and improvement".

If you're still wondering, here is a useful link on how to become a subscriber and enjoy all the advantages of the "School" part of the site: www.vibesworkshop.com/node/3006/