“A shout out to Bengt Mulle Holmqvist for his just launched TUPLET TRAINER - a genius app for iPhone dealing with metric/odd meter development. I'm using this great educational tool with my students here in New York, to enhance metric awareness which really is key for many reasons. When I was in Guillermo Klein's band at Smalls NYC in the 90's, we among other intricate things played a tune in 13/8 and playing regularly for 25 years with my Serbian NYC friends drummer Marko Djordjevic ( who has a published book on odd meters out ) and guitarist / vocalist Bato Andonov I have learned lots about odd meters. Great geek dancer Savina Theodorou showed me the Zebekiko rhythm (typically in 9) When working with polytonality, which we do in Jazz-we soon realize that there is a harmonic / melodic / rhythmic duality to be realized and refined and needless to say, thinking strictly in 4 gets us nowhere near that music. Also when dealing with microtonal music ( I've worked with a 72-note system for 20 years now ) we encounter brand new melodic, harmonic and rhythmic relationships and implications that there really is no actual 'manual' for. Meaning we have to map all of that out ourselves. Tuplet Trainer is an amazing tool for helping with this. And no wonder this invention came from a unique, one-of-a-kind educator and musician like Mulle Holmqvist, who luckily became a mentor for me way back in the mid-1980's by believing in and supporting me as a young aspiring musician ( at a time when very few others had the vision or dared to ) A musical and educational icon for half a century in Scandinavia, Europe and beyond, Mulle has always been a few steps ahead of everyone else and everything he does is amazing stuff. If you are into music you realize that the cultural traditions are all coming together, the future is already happening as we speak, and Tuplet Trainer is one of the hippest things out there.”
Sten Höstfält Jazz Guitarist, Bandleader and Educator New York City. Founder/Director NYC Guitar Studio, Faculty New York Jazz Academy
