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When “Vibraphone Technique, Dampening and Pedaling” saw the light of day almost 60 years ago, I would never have dreamed of its impact on the evolution of the vibraphone world wide. My motivation for writing it was quite simple. It started with a question; How can I inspire students and colleagues to invest their time and energy in the creation of an illusion, not unlike a magician’s “sleight of hand”? The “illusion”, in this case, is the development of techniques which make a percussive melodic instrument sound like the human voice. The ultimate example of this is the human voice, the sonic representation of true lyricism. The best compliment I ever got from a critic was, “Friedman sings on his instrument”. It encouraged me to continue confronting the challenges of trying to overcome the natural limitations of the vibraphone. The human voice has been and still is my goal. What are the specifics in getting there? The broad answer is, phrasing in the most sophisticated manner; using dampening to create true legato, slurs, exaggerating dynamics between notes, employing the proper pedaling to support the effect, and all of this perhaps within the phrasing of one measure. The result of this conscious phrasing can be lyricism, the “illusion” of being a violin, saxophone, clarinet, or, at best, the human voice. We can learn to “sing” on our instrument: Lyricism and melody are often synonymous, but not always. We think of a beautiful melody as having a lyrical arc, connecting the notes in a legato fashion, most fitting for the human voice. A melody can also have the opposite quality. It can be “pointillistic” in nature, with short, staccato notes, seemingly disconnected. This kind of melody is perfect for the tempered instrument. On the vibraphone, one can simply avoid using the pedal and play without dynamics.
With my new book, “Lyrical Studies for The Contemporary Vibraphonist”, the focus is on lyrical playing, introducing phrasing and pedaling techniques, which build on the challenges in “Vibraphone Technique, Dampening and Pedaling”. Here, different styles of playing are introduced. One can listen to the audio file of each piece, or “etude”. Visual examples of how to execute certain phrasing techniques are also included. Although each piece was an improvisation, each one is based on a musical idea and specific phrasing challenge. I hope you enjoy playing them as much as I did creating them.
One quick thought: Because the etudes were improvised, there are some small discrepancies between the phrasing of the “examples” and the etudes themselves. I did my best to play the “examples” as close to the originals as possible. However, striving for perfection can sometimes be the enemy of spontaneous creation.
7 сен 2024
