GHANA: Veteran Ghanaian musician Ambolley advises young Ghanaians to learn from older generation
16 December 2019
By Eugene Brown
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Veteran Ghanaian highlife musician, Gyedu-Blay Ambolley, has advised young Ghanaian musicians to learn from veteran musicians like himself in order to better their music careers.
Ambolley, who has been around for more than four decades attributes his creativity in terms of stage performances, songs and his ability to still rock the stage to learning everything he could from his seniors before becoming a full-time musician.
“In my time, I learnt from the best musicians and made sure I got everything right before doing music professionally but that is not what is happening today.
"The new crop of musicians are not learning from some of us and it is so sad; they enter the studio and the next minute, they are out with a song,” Ambolley said in a recent interview with Graphic Showbiz at the Labadi Beach Hotel in Accra.
He also blamed new technology for the kind of musicians we see now.
“Now anyone at all is a musician because of a computer fine-tuning voices to sound good. There is no proper stagecraft because musicians lately don’t learn anything,” he added.
He further explained that he is always improving on his stagecraft by learning from others and clocking a lot of rehearsal hours. “I can perform for hours without getting tired because of constant rehearsals and adding new styles to the things I do on stage,” he said.
According to the ‘Simigwa’ man, many of the veteran musicians, including himself, are ready and willing to teach the young ones if they approach them. He also advised the new crop of musicians to do authentic Highlife music because it is the only genre that represents Ghana.
“I have always said that Dancehall and the other genres will not take us anywhere. They were copied from elsewhere but Highlife is the true authentic music we have and we must hold it in high esteem,” he said.
Having won several awards both in Ghana and abroad, Gyedu Blay-Ambolley is well Known for songs such as Akoko Ba, The Simigwa, Adwoa, Fa No Dem Ara, Kwaakwaa, Toffie, Bolga Besia, Ejuma among others, Ambolley has performed extensively in Ghana and abroad.
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