I got up walked down to the basement. Set up Logic and played the first 4 tunes that came into my head. Kind of like a mini concert however I thought of it more as a practice session. I'm really really working hard on walking up to the instrument and playing it. I think that's a difficult thing, well at least for me!!!

I posted this in the thread with the link to the PBS Tiny Desk concert with Gary and Julian Lage, where this piece is performed. I don't know if anyone caught it though, so I'm reposting it here. This is also recorded on Gary's latest album 'Guided Tour'. It was written for Astor Piazzolla. I really like the harmonic movement.

I recently bought Jim Casella's vibraphone arrangement of Satie's Gymnopedie No. 1, which you can get from Steve Weiss. Aside from being a beautiful piece, I found it to be a great exercise in mallet dampening and independence. In particular, in some places you need to dampen AFTER the following note has been played rather than just before.

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You have to agree to do one VW lesson a month for 3 months and you have to post your work on the site. Maybe tell us if it helped you?

First 3 people that promise to do 1 lesson a month minimum for 3 months.

I'm giving away 3 copies.

Here is a nice little exercise. This will help anyone, but especially if you're beginning to improvise and you're trying to construct more fluid lines. Good luck!

This is the AABA structure of Sophisticated Lady according to the Real Book, with an attempt to include some of the descending 7th chords that characterize this piece. My timing's crap and it needs a solo section.

So, there's this lick I'm struggling with -- see the attached PDF and mp3 (from midi). I want it to go at about quarter note equal 160 (the speed of the midi), but I'm not even close, maybe about quarter note equal 100-120. Any suggestions beside repeat until I get it or die of frustration? (there has been a lot of this so far :-)).