So that practice time is always spent on something useful for performance, all lessons in this book are based on jazz standards: Fly Me To The Moon (Lessons 1-4), All Of Me (Lessons 5-8), Angel Eyes (Lessons 9-12), Blue Seven (Lessons 13-14), Triste (Lessons 15-16), and But Beautiful (Lessons 17-20).
ii Foreword
2 Introduction
7 Lesson 1 Root Motion with Melody
13 Lesson 2 Creating A Motive
20 Lesson 3 Melody
with Root and Fifth
23 Lesson 4 Developing
a Motive
31 Lesson 5 Introduction to
Block Chords
36 Lesson 6 Using Block
Chords
41 Lesson 7 Block Chords Continued
46 Lesson 8 Playing Into Block Chords
53 Lesson 9 Guide Tones
58 Lesson 10 Guide
Tones In Solos
64 Lesson 11 Rhythm Studies
71 Lesson 12 Rhythm Studies Continued
76 Lesson 13 Walking
Bass
81 Lesson 14 Vamps
86 Lesson 15 Rhythm
Studies - Latin
94 Lesson 16 Latin Continued
99 Lesson 17 Filling In the Holes
107 Lesson 18 Forward
Motion
112 Lesson 19 Countermelody
118 Lesson 20 Concertato
Statements
121 Afterword
122 Discography of selected solo vibraphone recordings
to the student
The purpose of this book is to show you how to take a lead sheet, such as found
in a fake book, and translate it into an unaccompanied vibraphone
solo. The unaccompanied vibe solo first began in the 1960s when Gary Burton
began to apply piano techniques to four-mallet playing. Since then it has been
developed by many fine players into a standard format for vibes. A discography
at the end of the book will help you find some of the many unaccompanied vibe
recordings available.
This is not a vibraphone technique book. The lessons are written with the assumption
that you know how to use four mallets (I recommend the Burton grip) and how
to pedal and dampen.
Neither is this a jazz improvisation text, although it does provide ideas to
help you develop your jazz improvisation skills. You should already know basic
music theory (chords, scales, intervals, etc.). You should also know how to
read music and chord symbols. The Introduction describes the information you
are expected to know to complete the lessons in this book. (For more comprehensive
information, you should look for a teacher or for a text dedicated to improvisation.)
This is a book for learning unaccompanied playing. It does not
assume that you have previously done any unaccompanied jazz playing. In fact,
your jazz background can be minimal if your knowledge of music theory is strong.
If you have some experience in unaccompanied jazz performance, you may find
the first few lessons pretty simple. I urge you to read through them anyway.
All the techniques presented in this book can be effectively used in solo playing
and you may find the exercises interesting.
I suggest that you work on the lessons in the order they are presented. They
become progressively more difficult and many of the later lessons are intended
to develop ideas presented earlier. The lessons are written in pairs. Each odd-numbered
lesson presents an accompaniment idea to be applied to a given melody. The following
even-numbered lesson takes the same accompaniment idea and applies it to an
improvised solo. For the most part, four lessons are spent on each suggested
tune.
Each lesson follows the same format: a description of the concept presented;
a coordination exercise, to help you teach your hands to rhythmically link accompaniment
and melody; a theory exercise, to help you learn how to apply a concept to the
keyboard; a tune exercise, to show you how to apply the coordination and/or
theory exercise to a tune; and a sample tune on which the concept should work
well.
Very few of the exercises are shown in complete form. If they are meant to be
played on the form of the tune, only a sample is shown. If they are meant to
be played in all twelve keys, only a few are shown, usually in the circle of
fifths, circle of fourths, or chromatic sequence. This is deliberate. This book
is intended to help you develop improvisation skills. You need
to be able to use these skills without depending on written music other than
a lead sheet. Be sure to play all the exercises to their logical conclusions.
There are many other tunes you can play. Fake books, such a those published
by the Sher Music Company, are a great source of lead sheets. You can apply
the accompaniment techniques, as well as the learning techniques (i.e. Theory
Exercise, Tune Exercise, etc.) to any tune you want to play. For any tune you
are serious about playing, you should memorize, in addition to the chord changes,
the root motion (by both name and sound) as well as guide tone lines (see Lesson
9), scales, and melody.
to the teacher
Despite nearly three decades of unaccompanied jazz vibraphone performance, no
book like this has ever been published. The many vibraphone players who play
unaccompanied recommend that players learn in the same manner current professionals
themselves learned: by studying piano and piano players and adapting their techniques
to the limitations of the vibraphone. At this point there is enough of a tradition
in solo vibes that players should no longer have to keep "reinventing the
wheel." This book is a result of detailed research on the methods and techniques
solo vibe players actually use in their performances.
There are already many vibe books on the market which describe basic things
such as the keyboard and the staff, holding four mallets, etc. This book is
meant to supplement or follow such a text. The level of student ability assumed
is approximately that of a college freshman.
Although the length of each lesson varies, all are structured the same. This
should make it easier to give assignments. Since the physical and mental aspects
of accompanying one's own solo seemed to be the two main problem areas, the
exercises are designed to deal with each separately before putting them together
in playing a tune.
The lessons are written in pairs, alternating between accompanying a given melody
and accompanying an improvised one. If you want a student to focus on accompanying
only a given melody, you could skip the even-numbered chapters.
Although it starts with some rudimentary ideas, this text will be challenging
to all vibraphone students. Your students will benefit from direct study of
an instrumental style which, although it is derived from jazz piano, has developed
a worthy tradition of its own.
(c) copyright 1996 Terry Gunderson, Mallets Aforethought
Guide to Solo Vibraphone is available from Mallets Aforethought,
P. O. Box 965, Casper, WY 82601-0965 USA, for $15.00 (US). In North America,
include $3.00 shipping and handling for one copy, $1.00 s&h for each additional
copy. Overseas orders: $6.00 shipping & handling for one copy, $3.00 s&h for
each additional copy. It is also available through The Percussion Specialist
[41 E. 400 N., #153, Logan, UT 84321 (800) 341-7004 Fax: (208) 852-2652); email
percussionspecialist@hotmail.com; website: percussionspecialist.com] and Steve
Weiss Music [P. O. 2324 Wyandotte Road, Willow Grove, PA 19090 (215) 659-0100)]
In Europe, it is available from Herbert Brandt's Percussion Noten-und Plattenversand
[Kaiserstrasse 127, 76133 Karlsruhe, Germany. Tel. 07 21/69 89 44].
This file, as well as a PDF version of the the Guide's Lesson 4
can be found at Terry
Gunderson's Web Page at http://wind.caspercollege.edu/gundet/index.html.
The doctoral dissertation which formed the research for this book can be obtained
from University Microfilms, Inc. in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
A transcrition, from the dissertation, of the melody and one solo chorus of Gary Burton's rendition of Steve Swallow's "I'm Your Pal" can be found in the March, 1994 issue (vol. XXVI, No. 3) if the Jazz Educators Journal.
Send e-mail to terryg@caspercollege.edu if you have comments or questions.
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All material in these pages should be presumed to be copyrighted (c)1996 by Terry Gunderson, unless otherwise noted.
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