Good morning,

Can anyone recomend or have styles for the following songs?

Elvira
Just The Way You Are
Hot Hot Hot
Bad Bad Leroy Brown

Thanks!

If you mean Billy Joel's "Just the way You Are" - try a samba (yes, you heard right) at a very slow 62-64 tempo. That's just about what Liberty D is playing on the record.

For Elvira and Bad Leroy Brown I use third-party styles, which I'll be more than happy to email to you.

For Hot Hot Hot, the Zouk style, which can be found in the World Category of the keyboard hits it right on the money. Set the tempo at 118, use the "D" variation, and without pressing any keys hit the Start/Stop button, which will fire up the drums. Sing the Ole, Ole, Ole, Ole intro a couple times, hit the fill and select the chord you sing the song with.

For Just The Way You Are, the Pop Bossanova with a tempo of 135 and the "C" variation works great. Try using the second intro, which is pretty clean and relatively short.

Good Luck,

Gary

Thanks Gary for your assistance!

Uncle Dave- slowing down the samba works great. I can't believe I didn't think of that becuase I'm a drummer and I'm familar with the Liberty D. pattern.


My only issue now is how to play the two handed piano intro while in accompaniment mode. I've tried full keyboard mode but my T2 does not respond the way I want it to. Any ideas?

I have sent you a link via PM to a style I assembled/created and use for the tune "Just The Way You Are"...it has the characteristic intro and it was done on the PSR-S910, so it may need conversion to work in the Tyros2, but it should be fine otherwise.

It is based more on a Bossa style rhythm than a Samba, but it works great for me. I hope this helps.

Ian

If you can find a decent SMF of the tune, you can always cut out the Intro and splice it into your favorite style for the song... if you want to go with the slowed down Samba, for instance. Or even grab Ian's Intro from the Bossa version.

Mind you, the sax solo in the middle is a bear to get the scoops right while still playing the chords with your LH. In this particular song's case, if you are shooting for authenticity, an SMF might do the trick better than a style.

You can still drop in some Markers so that you can extend or shorten it on the fly, should you feel that necessary.

Why copy the sax solo....just play it your own way and make the song yours, many times its better then the original that way.....no need to copy exactly IMO.

Well, even if you DON'T copy the sax solo verbatim, just about ANY decent sax solo requires you to bend at often the very instant you need to change chords as well. I've posted about this in the past, but it bears repeating. Listen to just about ANY sax solo. Listen to how many times he bends at chord boundaries. In fact, many times, he's bending BECAUSE there's a chord boundary..!

It's just part of what they do.

(And if you can play a solo that's BETTER than the original, kudos! I'd like to hear it. )

Ian- it will a day or so until I can play around with the style you sent me but I do apreciate that very much.

Diki- one day I'll have to learn to do what your talking about. I'm sure you must come up with some great styles doing that!

there are many songs that a SMF or a backing track would worlk better for improvising. Mainly to free my left hand to pitch bend more play jazz rootless voices that my Tyros 2 does not understand:(

As

Great suggestion, Donny.

I do the sax solo my way, but, in the interest of keeping the tune's solo relatively cohesive with the rest of the piece, I generally do the first and last parts of the solo very close to the original Phil Wood's version. What is in between is usually my own interpretation.

Most people identify specific solos by the way they are introduced into the tune, or how they lead the listener into the rest of the tune.

Although I can't put in as many bends and scoops as a free playing solo sax player, I feel I do enough to give it a decent amount of authenticity, and I am happy with that.

I don't use any SMF (to each his own)...I prefer the flexibility of styles for my kind of playing...if I lose some in the amount of bends/scoops, I gain it by being able to alter chords, add extra verses, and even change styles at my own discretion.

Ian