As a soloist he planned his concert items differently, often singing rare compositions while keeping popular numbers to a minimum, specializing in vivadi (dissonant) ragas rarely attempted by most popular musicians of his time and was full of musical complexities.
However, Kalyanaraman didn't completely ignore the legacy of his guru to forge that of his own, he popularized the GNB bani (style) of singing and also immortalized his guru's hallmark ragas like Shanmukhapriya, Kalyani (raga), Dheerasankarabharanam, Kapi Narayani and many more.