16th note groupings of 5
One way to spice up your solo/composition is to group the notes by different numbers, especially when you are playing a lot of 16th notes runs etc. This makes the accents pop out on different places and create tensions (and resolves at one point), making it more interesting.
Hiroaki Maekawa, better known as Hiro, is a passionate musician and educator based in Singapore. Hiro has performed and collaborated with artists from all over the world such as Sonny Turner and the platters (USA), Rick Sheppard and the drifters (USA), Jayesslee (Australia), Takahiro Miyazaki (Japan), Eugene Hideaway Bridges (USA), Michelle Johnson (USA), Sachiyo Nakagaki (Japan), Donny Ray Evins (USA), Zainal Abidin (Malaysia), Tamagoh (Singapore), Michael Veerapen (Malaysia), Aya Sekine (Japan), Natasha Patamapongs (Thailand), Lewis Pragasam (Malaysia), Kamaya (Indonesia), Diego Morato (Mexico), Rodrigo Villanueva Conroy (Mexico), Alina Ramirez (Mexico), Nantha Kumar (Singapore), Jack and Rai (Singapore), Mandy Gaines (USA), Tengku Ryo (Indonesia), Sham Kamikaze (Malaysia), John Kaizan Neptune (USA/Japan), Shareef Clayton(USA), Norman Paul Edwards Jr. (USA), Charanee Wade (USA), Marques Young (USA), Gabriel Evens (USA), Juwita Suwito (Malaysia), Pablo Calzado (Cuba), Liang (Malaysia), David Gomez (Malaysia), Junji Delfino (Malaysia), Marco Alonso(Cuba), Atilia (Malaysia), Maya Nova (Bulgaria), Farid Ali, (Malaysia), Zee Avi (Malaysia), Weixiang Tan (Singapore), Eddie Layman (USA), Joanna Dong (Singapore), Greg Lyons (UK), John Thomas (Malaysia), Nicole Duffel (Australia), Chris Stalk (France) Darren Moore (Australia), Jeremy Tordjman (France), Indra Ismail (Singapore), Corey Manders (Canada), Surath Godfrey (Sri Lanka), Simon Yong (Singapore) and many more.
Hiro has also Performed at numerous International Jazz/Arts Festivals such as Penang (Malaysia) Island Jazz Festival 06 07 09, Rock The World (Malaysia) 06, Genting (Malaysia) International Jazz Festival 07, Gumi (S.Korea) Jazz Festival 07, Sunrise (Malaysia) Jazz Festival 08, Sunburst (Malaysia) festival 09, Dig It All (Malaysia) festival 09, JB (Malaysia) Jazz festival 10, Jarasum (S.Korea) Jazz Festival 09, JGTC (Indonesia) Jazz Festival 09, 10, Mosaic (Singapore) Jazz Festival 10, 11, YMCA festival 11 (Hong Kong), Borneo (Malaysia) jazz festival 12, Koh Samui (Thailand) jazz festival 12, Jazz me festival (Taiwan) 13, Kathmandu (Nepal) jazz festival 14, Alcheringa festival (India) 16 besides other jazz club performances and concerts.
As an artist, Hiro has produced and released 2 albums consisting of all original compositions with his progressive jazz rock band, Tokyo Blue.