DESCRIPTION:
Here's a clip of me playing solo marimba on Jobim's O Grande Amor. I'm a huge fan of Jobim and Brazilian music. Jobim bossas sound great on marimba. I've been trying to incorporate more deadstrokes and dampening on the marimba. The marimba is such a beautiful instrument and has so much potential in terms of depth of sound. The dead strokes and dampening can be effective in terms of playing with more nuance, increasing clarity of parts and expanding the range of articulation. The technique that I'm using in this clip is basically playing consecutive 8th notes that are divided between the melody and various accompaniment techniques such as left hand double stops, counterpuntal lines under the melody, chord arpeggiation, etc. The key is to make it flow and try to distribute the 8th notes between all of the four mallets. In addition, try to be careful with the layering of the dynamics and bring out the melody versus the accompaniment. Playing the various parts with nuance via the use of dampening techniques and deadstrokes is also important. I worked on this 8th note consecutive technique on other Jobim bossas such at Chega De Saudade when I studied with Gary Burton as a student at Berklee.

Ed Saindon Marimba Instruction via Skype and Face Time

I recently set up my new YouTube channel (edsaindonmarimba) for the purpose of posting some solo marimba performances featuring music from various genres. The marimba is a beautiful instrument that has a lot of depth and color from which to draw from and create many moods. While I'm known as primarily a vibist, I have always enjoyed playing the marimba. One thing that I especially like about the marimba versus the vibraphone is the expanded range and various possibilities with the lower range. Through the years on vibraphone, I've worked on developing a pianistic approach to mallet keyboard playing along with techniques that fully utilize the four mallets in solo playing. These techniques are fairly easy to transfer on marimba. In addition, some of the dampening and deadstrokes that are effective for playing the vibraphone are also effective on marimba. Playing piano since I began playing the vibraphone has been helpful when it comes to playing the marimba in terms of dealing with harmony, developing arrangements, orchestrating, use of counterpoint and improvising.

Through the years, I've had the pleasure of teaching quite a few wonderful marimbists at Berklee College of Music. With the marimbist's high level four mallet technique, well-developed musicality and great ears, I've been amazed at how quickly they grasp and apply the concepts. Some of my past students include: Hidemi Murase, Nanae Mimura, Pius Cheung, Eriko Daimo, Setsuno Kutsuno, Chieh Huang, Aya Shinozaki, Momo Ishikawa, Yui Koda, Alex Delgado, Jeremy Barnett,...

Some of the topics covered in the marimba lessons include Four Mallet Techniques, Theory and Harmony, Approaches in Developing Arrangements, Improvisational Concepts, Orchestration/Arranging Concepts (that utilize four mallets). Musical styles address American Folk Songs, Pop (The Beatles), Movie Themes, Jobim Bossas, Piazzolla Tangos, Choros, Latin, Contemporary Jazz (Jarrett, Corea, Metheny) and songs from the Great American Songbook (Gershwin, Porter, Carmichael,...).

Information regarding the scheduling of lessons and payment is available on my website under Music Education/Lessons. Here's the link: http://www.edsaindon.com/PrivateLessons.aspx