Meet Kentaro Saito

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kentaro Saito a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kentaro , thank you so much for joining us. You are such a positive person and it’s something we really admire and so we wanted to start by asking you where you think your optimism comes from?

I am optimistic as long as I am working towards something.
I know that if I spend time on the effort, it will get me somewhere.
When I first entered the guitar school called G.I.T, at the age of 19, I probably was the worst guitarist in the whole program. Then I said, “Let me spend as much time practicing the instrument. I am the worst here and I am screwed now. If I spend time practicing, I might get somewhere, I might not, but if I don’t do it, I will have been screwed anyways.
And I am still screwed, but I am less screwed than I used to be.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

My band “Kentaro and the Ramen Flag Band” will have an album out soon under the Houston Record Label, Visionary Noise in a couple of months.
It is for those who believe in the power of the Ramen.
It is the new chapter of our previous name, OTONANA Trio.

I also have my “I am Old Enough to Solo Guitar Jazz” album,
https://kentarosaito.hearnow.com

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Relative Pitch, Music History, and Foreign Language, are the three most important skills that I have developed and helped my journey.

Relative Pitch is a result of musical ear training, which I am never perfect about.
It is the ability to hear the music and instantly play the music on our instrument, in my case guitar.
It is the ability that helps you understand music theory.
It is the ability that helped me most to make money as a musician.
I am pretty good, but millions of people who are better than me…
And still helps me.

Music History can help you understand how music has developed over the years.
Sometimes a musician or a band would be treated as a religion.
Even some teachers in given music school. But once you believe one and only one, you become blind and ignore what has influenced them what they influenced.
Say, for example, the decline of the popularity of Big Band Jazz, has something to do with the emergence of the electric instrument including the microphone.
We no longer need the 24-piece brass band to dance to loud music.
If the loud dance music can be played by hiring three or four electric instruments or voices, would be the better business decision.
Also, the louder the bass is groovier the music can be.
Meaning, acoustic bass is not loud enough…
Of course, there are so many other elements that I am not aware of, and I can list 100 more examples of why I think music history is important, but, I can confidently say, that it is true learning music history helped me a lot.

Foreign Language is a tool for understanding different cultures. It is a tool to make more friends.
In my case, my native language is Japanese and I am fluent enough to communicate and get a job in the U.S. as a music instructor, I have also worked in the financial field with the British.
I can also “kinda” assemble the meanings when I read the Chinese.
Which, I imagine can be the same for those who speak Spanish and “kinda” understand Portuguese.

Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?

Steve Trovato, the current USC professor.
Ross Bolton, G.I.T. professor.
Vic Juris, Arnie Lawrence, Junior Mance, Makanda Ken McIntyre, Bobby Sanabria, Jane Ira Bloom, and Reggie Workman, professors at New School Jazz.
Jack Lesure, current UCLA professor.
Evelyn Blakey, the singer.

They definitely are the ones who helped me a lot and I was fortunate to have them spending time teaching me.
I might be forgetting someone, and I will be awfully sorry when I remember them.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Scarecrowoven
Oscar Moreno
ryeguy

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