Featured Artist of the Month Kalya Ramu Jazz Vocalist

Featured Artist of the Month

Kalya Ramu Jazz Vocalist

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    In my featured artist of the month blog, I decided to start with new and local talent. I like to reiterate the fact that this guitar lesson blog is intended for my music students that I teach privately and online, but it is also open to anyone else who is willing to read my blog and hopefully learn something from the articles. We won’t go into the benefits of why listening to good music and good musicians are important for the development of the musician or guitarist. If you want to learn why and who you should be listening to you can go read my last lesson blog: Are you just getting into jazz improvisation? Who should you be listening to?

  Our featured artist of the month is Kalya Ramu jazz vocalist who resides in Canada, Toronto Ontario. She has been gigging regularly in her local scene. You can catch her performing live in any one of the local Toronto jazz & blues bars. Some of the venues she has performed in are the Rex Hotel, Old Mill Inn, The Silver Dollar Room, Hugh's Room and the list goes on. Her style is versed in the old classic jazz vocalists of the 1920’s, 30’s & 40’s. You can hear all sorts of influences in her style from Billie Holliday, Sara Vaughan Ella Fitzgerald, and Bessie Smith. I like hearing new talent paying tribute to the old, because I feel the era of Frank Sinatra & Billie Holliday is dying out and we need a revival that will keep that music alive. She is certainly doing justice to the tradition of classic jazz with adding her own unique twist and voice to that classic era. With the lack of talent in the music scene and popular culture today,  Kalya Ramu brings a wealth of exceptional talent and taste for a music industry that is much in need of it. She certainly can be a role model for young teens and can be someone to look up to and idolize. Most of the women in pop culture today can’t offer that that type of sophistication in their look or talent.

  

 As for her music you can’t go wrong, especially if you want to listen to good live music. If you happen to be in Toronto one night go check her out and support our local talent and future stars. She always delivers a great live performance. To buy her music or see her current list of upcoming shows you can visit this link: http://www.kalyaramu.ca/shows--albums.html

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/kalya-ramu/1166750476https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/kalya-ramu/1166750476

Amazon Links:

If you love love listening to jazz vocalists check out the latest selection on Amazon

 

 By Phil La Viola
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The Odd Couple Theme Song

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If you are a fan of Jazz music and the 60's TV show The Odd Couple, then you probably love the theme song. For jazz guitar lovers Russell Malone has a great version of the song that I transcribed for your performing pleasure.

You can click on the link below to get

your free copy the Pdf version of the song here:

From my web site: The Odd Couple

Transcribed by: Phil La Viola

 The Guitar Trix & Tips Blog is associated with Guitar 6 School of Music

 

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If you are a fan of Jazz music and the 60's TV show The Odd Couple, then you probably love the theme song. For jazz guitar lovers #russellmalone has a great version of the song that I transcribed for your performing pleasure. Please visit the link to download a free copy of the lead sheet http://guitartipsandtrix.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-odd-couple-theme-song.html?m=1 #guitarlessons #guitarsolo #guitarblog #musicblog #majorscales #musiclessons #bloggers #blogs #beginnerjazzguitar #beginnerguitar #bluesguitar #bluesguitarlessons #jazzguitar #jazzchords

A post shared by guitartipsandtrix (@guitartipsandtrix) on Aug 13, 2020 at 9:46pm PDT

 

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Devilette Solo Transcripiton for guitar by Dexter Gordon

 

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Devilette Solo  Transcription for guitar by Dexter Gordon

I will be uploading a new jazz solo transcription from any random featured artist every couple of months.  The first Jazz transcription solo will be by American jazz tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon. There are many reasons for transcribing and for me it is to help with my jazz phrasing, ear training and to learn the many soloing tricks and devices that the pros use. So download the notation and  guitar tab at your convenience and enjoy. Cheers

Download the entire Devillette solo for guitar here: http://www.guitar6music.com/uploads/5/3/9/7/5397775/devilette_solo_for_guitar-page-001-converted.pdf

Here is  Video link to the song. Dexter's Solo starts at the 50 second mark

 

Here is a demo of me playing the entire solo

with the recording

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To download the entire Pdf file please visit the link http://guitartipsandtrix.blogspot.com/2019/11/devilette-solo-transcripiton-for-guitar.html?m=1

A post shared by guitartipsandtrix (@guitartipsandtrix) on Nov 24, 2019 at 9:17pm PST

The Guitar Trix & Tips Blog is associated with Guitar 6 School of Music
and is a amazon associate.

Guitar6music.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a way for websites to earn advertising revenues by advertising and linking to Amazon.ca.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bye Bye Blackbird melody as played by Miles Davis for guitar

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Bye Bye Blackbird

 Please click on the image to view and print: or click on

the link to download the Pdf version: Bye Bye Blackbird

   From now on, I've decided to learn every new jazz standard by ear and stay away from learning melodies straight from a fake book. Every couple of months, I'll post a featured jazz artist's solo or melody transcription and share what I've been working on.

Recently, I wanted to learn "Bye Bye Blackbird." I had been looking at the version in my fake book, but then I heard Miles Davis play it, and I immediately noticed how much more interesting and musical his version sounded. After learning the melody from the fake book, I realized that, to my ears, it sounded pretty lifeless and boring compared to the way Miles played it.

So I decided to lift the melody directly from the Miles Davis version. And, man, what a difference! The phrasing sounds so much better and more melodic. There are subtle things in the way Miles plays the melody that you just don't get from looking at the notes on a page. It's a good reminder that there's a lot more to a melody than simply playing the right notes.

I didn't have time to write everything out neatly on my computer using notation software and tabs, so for now, I'm posting my good old chicken-scratch handwriting on manuscript paper. The song is in the key of F major, and hopefully anyone who comes across this post can read music!

In the future, I'll come back and edit this post with cleaner notation and tabs to make it easier to follow.

Enjoy, and happy playing!, please visit my past blog post on how to get started in learning how to read music on guitar.

 The Guitar Trix & Tips Blog is associated with Guitar 6 School of Music 

The Right Brain Effect Will Help You Improvise With Ease

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The Right Brain Effect Will Help You Improvise With Ease

One of the first things I teach my new students on the guitar is how to play a 12 bar blues.  We usually pick the key of A. The first week they practice all 3 of the dominant 7^th chords that are in the song. The 2^nd lesson I introduce the A blues scale and this is where the magic starts. As soon as they get the scale and the notes under their belt and begin to feel and hear what the notes sound like against the chords. It is immediately followed by a smile and the sheer look of bliss on the students face. This is what is called the right brain effect and what my jazz guitar hero Joe Diorio called the creative side of the brain (right brain thinking). When we tap into this side of the brain we are relying on our intuition and the subconscious mind. This doesn’t mean we want to give up on the mathematical side (left brain) because we need that side to learn our scales and modes. The key is to internalize all these musical devices so you don’t have to think once you start to improvise.  Getting into a creative state of mind starts to get more difficult once you get into more complex music. For example, to solo over Giant Steps or a jazz standard such as All The Things You Are requires you think of the changes so you can apply the appropriate scales when improvising over these tunes. So how do you express yourself creatively over a set of complex chord changes without the left brain stealing from your creative side?

Here is a list of ideas you can incorporate into your practice schedule that will free you from sounding stale and boring with your guitar solos.

1. Memorize the changes or chords to the whole song: This will turn off the left side of the brain, which will force you to start on relying on the right brain, the creative side.
Eg. All the Things You Are: week 1 practice soloing only on the first 8 measures.
Week 2 add the next 8 measures’ plus review the first 8. In total you have 16 bars and you should be doing all the improvising from memory. Continue like this for a couple of months until you feel you know these 16 bars inside and out. Once you take your time like this with a standard it will start to feel like you're soloing over a simple A 12 bar blues. Continue this process with the rest of the song. This may seem time consuming, but this one of the things you need to do to have mastery over a piece of music. Don’t rush into learning everything at once. Your mind can only handle so much and a little at a time is the best way to go.

2. Do some relaxing exercises such a yoga or meditation. When you are relaxed your creative process works better and you can tap into the subconscious mind with ease. This is what you want when you are creating music on the fly (Amazon Link):Kenny Werner wrote an excellent book that goes into a great deal about feeling relaxed, which can be beneficial for your creative inner self. It also comes with a CD of meditation exercises that is tailored for the improvising musician. It’s a great read

I hoped some of these ideas presented here will help you feel more confident with your playing.  The most important thing is to feel relaxed and at ease while making music so the creativity will flow through you. 

Phil La Viola 

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Kenny Werner Book: 

Effortless Mastery