She Contains Multitudes

Ayla Tesler-Mabé: Stealth Genius

Ayla Tesler-Mabé began posting guitar covers of classic rock and blues-rock songs around the time she turned 14. That alone is not unique—there are a lot of young musicians showing off their chops on YouTube, some of them quite good. However, very few people that age have either her musical touch or her sense of history. And even fewer are as good at so many things.

As you will see in the following clips, Ayla composes, sings, plays several instruments, and knows how to mix and arrange music. As a teenager, she spent a couple of years with a young indie-rock band before founding her own experimental progressive rock band, Ludic. She has also jammed with several established musicians. She released her debut EP “Let Me Out!!” in 2023.

She offers both private and online guitar lessons and tutorials. She does equipment demos and critiques, and is a real nerd about all aspects of music.

Ayla stands quietly but firmly against the sexualization of women in the music business. You will find no twerking or pole-humping in her videos. She blocks anyone who posts suggestive comments, or worse, on her videos. She has stated that she takes her responsibility to model self-respect seriously.

I’ve picked a few of my favorite posts from her YouTube channel. They are in chronological order, except for the last one, and let you see her evolution as a songwriter. Her technical skills were already highly advanced when she started posting, but her feel for the music is what sets her apart.

“Black Magic Woman” (cover, original by Peter Green/Fleetwood Mac)

This is arguably the song that made Carlos Santana’s career. His version was itself a cover of Peter Green’s original. Green wrote it while with the band he had founded, Fleetwood Mac, and they first performed it in 1970.

Santana heard them and said Green’s guitar sound “puts you in a headlock, and you can’t get out.” He spent his entire career trying to recapture that sound. After Green’s death, Santana said, “He is, after all, the reason I picked up an electric guitar in the first place.”

Here, Ayla, 15, plays her rendition of “Black Magic Woman.” She does not try to copy either Green or Santana but puts her own interpretation on it. She adds many little touches that weren’t in those versions. Her playing is incredibly clean and precise, without losing any of the feeling.

“Freeway Jam” (cover, original by Jeff Beck, written by Max Middleton)

Jeff Beck’s 1975 album “Blow by Blow” was a breakthrough, the first successful fusion album by a musician from the rock world. Beck was already considered one of the “holy trinity” of British blues guitarists (along with Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page). Making the transition to jazz fusion put him at a different level of experimentation. That willingness to change direction would become the hallmark of his career.

Here, Ayla (19) has assembled an accomplished group of young musicians to cover one of the hits from “Blow by Blow.” (It’s worth listening to the original if you aren’t familiar with it.) Here, they add a lot of their own little touches, change up the solos, and make it their own while staying true to the spirit of the original.

“Thoughts of U” (Ludic: Ayla (20), Max Cunningham, Rhett Cunningham)

In a weird echo of the Japanese power trio Asterism, Ludic consists of Ayla on guitar with two brothers on drums and bass. They play a fascinating mix of styles, sometimes all blended into a single song. Their sound can vary from jazz-pop to progressive rock, with a lot of funk thrown in. Ayla sings and plays all the guitars.

This is an original composition by Ayla. Her guitar line is full of twists and turns without being shreddy. She is creative with the tones and effects. But the most striking thing is her singing. She doesn’t play it safe — the melodies are complex and require some agility. And then, at the end, she treats us to some guitar magic.

“Keep My Mind Off the News” (original)

Ayla wrote, arranged, sang, played all the instruments, and produced this. It zigs and zags between moods, starting funky and heavy with a slightly ominous sound, then giving us a sudden excursion into some sort of psychedelic jazz-pop, and then back to the darker sound. Some moments remind me of Frank Zappa, especially the sense of musical humor.

Ayla’s voice has gained maturity and depth, and she can sing jazz lines with perfect control. Who even needs a band when you can do it all?

“Since I’ve Been Loving You” (cover, original by Led Zeppelin)

I wrap this up with something that takes us back to Ayla at 15. It is, in some ways, my favorite clip here. When watching this, I realize that most of the time we see her, Ayla plays with great restraint. Here, she goes for it.

This may not be as well-known as Zeppelin’s biggest hits, but I consider it one of their most remarkable pieces. While it isn’t as vocally off-the-rails as some of their other songs, the guitar line is some of the best stuff Jimmy Page ever did. It starts as a classic blues, but Page added in some pyrotechnics that, rather than being self-indulgent, add emotional intensity to the song.

Ayla, then 15 years old, completely gets it and channels that intensity perfectly. Playing with her eyes closed most of the time, she seems one with her instrument. I think it’s a remarkable performance.

For more of Ayla, here is her website:

Ayla Tesler-Mabé

23 year-old singer, multi-instrumentalist, producer and songwriter from Vancouver, Canada. Her debut EP 'Let Me Out!!'