SSB - Jeepney by Kala
July 5th, 2006
I was channel surfing one weekend and I chanced upon this really funky band called Kala, revivalists of the so-called “Manila Sound” made popular by Hotdog, VST and Company, Boyfriends, Asin, Hagibis, and Juan de la Cruz among others in the 70’s. Manila Sound is a very light kind of pop music that often mixes Tagalog with English, and is thematically identified by the use of puppy-love, or juvenile, sentiments.
Manila Sound is to Manila what Reggae is to the Visayas: it just fits, kind of like a soundtrack to the daily grid of the region. Jeepney talks about a chance encounter between an ordinary guy and a hot chick while riding the *ehem* Jeepney, and the awkwardness of trying to strike up a conversation with someone who’s out of your league. I love the song because it’s so typical, so reflective of ordinary life in Manila. It doesn’t use any fancy metaphors or allusions (that I’m aware of), and is instantly accessible. Anybody who’s been on a Jeepney with a gorgeous girl can relate.
Breakdown - the elements
Kala uses a lot of layers to achieve their sound, including keyboards and some nice reverbs to go with their whammy work on the guitar - standard gear for the Manila Sound (and most other bands of that era). I’m gonna focus on the bare essentials of the song, pretty much the stuff you can play using your trusty acoustic.
It is important to note that the song relies heavily on what certain accents to achieve its feel. The variations in strumming patterns are the key to the Manila Sound, as well as strategic palm and fret-hand mutings. You’ll almost never strum the chords continuously, but alternate from soft scrapes to short chops. To illustrate what I mean, refer to the sampling of the intro and verse below:
The song revolves around the following chords and fills:
But the important thing is to vary the strumming action; it’s all in the wrist, but it might take time to get used to. To get a better feel for what I’m talking about, you should buy the album and play along 
Breakdown - Expanding the Song
This is a case of just taking what the song gives me, and a perfect example of modal theory: just because the song starts with an F doesn’t mean that the root is in F. Listen closely and you’ll notice that the song just naturally resolves in A. In this case, the Amin7 scale works perfectly. I also took a cue from the vocalist’s scat singing and ran with it. Below is a part of what i did for this passage:
Hope that gave you an idea for your own stuff; til next time, keep rockin \m/
13 Responses to “SSB - Jeepney by Kala”
July 11th, 2006 at 11:18 pm
wow….nicey! D
ikaw na si god…
hakhak…!
July 12th, 2006 at 9:00 am
haha, thanks
July 24th, 2006 at 9:03 pm
galing! nice! positiv vibes!
August 3rd, 2006 at 7:31 pm
can you give me the chords of jeepney by kala,,,(:,,coz i dont know how to use tabs and read tabs,,,hehe,,tnx
August 3rd, 2006 at 9:46 pm
I did post the chords above… they’re Fmaj6-Emin7-Amin7 throughout the song
August 29th, 2006 at 1:15 pm
Galing mo brod!!!!!!!!!alam mu rin po b bass tabs nya..urgent kc kelangan namin my jam kmi sa skul….ahehe….lupit mo!!!!!!
September 21st, 2006 at 3:53 pm
idol kelangan ko din bass ng jeepney..tutugtugin kc namin sa debut ng kaibigan ko eh..cge tnx
October 24th, 2006 at 12:10 am
hi…meron ba kayong more lessons on funky music? and some sweet songs?
October 24th, 2006 at 6:02 pm
[…] That being said, I apologize to some of my visitors who’ve continued to come back to this site despite - whoa - two months of inactivity. I’ll do better, I promise. Right now, I’m in the process of transcribing AHoff’s request for Daniel Powter’s Bad Day to guitar. I’m not satsified with it yet; I want to get that piano feel and so far I’m failing miserably LOL. I’m also workin’ on cris’ request for a funky tutorial - I don’t have a bass at the moment so I’m having trouble getting the groove right, but it’s getting there. Thanks for the visit guys! […]
February 24th, 2007 at 10:54 am
thanks again. its been quite a while but I will definitely find this very useful in our next gig. Goes to show how Filipinos are attuned to the universal language of the world [not math]…
tui vere,
André
March 2nd, 2007 at 12:39 pm
actually from how i’ve widowed it, i believe the introduction and the verse has the chords Fmaj9 Gmaj7 Am7. not sure but I play the keyboard and those are the chords i got to achieve the right sound.
March 2nd, 2007 at 12:52 pm
Emin7 is a mode of Gmaj7, anyway
and please note that all my SSBs are *my* takes on how to play the song, not an outright rip
April 13th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
Jorge this is great… Its been months now im looking for a chords of this. Gusto ko sana ma-download yung strum patters, solo and tabs. I would really appreciate this. Here is my email. sirknightmarvz@gmail.com
Thanks.