Canadian Musician - November/December 2018 | Page 25

PHOTO: NICOL SPINOLA PHOTOGRAPHY
GUITAR
Peter Serravalle is one of Vancouver’s busiest guitarists. As a live and in-studio session player, Peter is a regular guitar chair for many
musical theatre productions throughout Vancouver, as well as a regular guitarist with John William Dexter’s “Bailamos!,” the Vancouver
Men’s Chorus, Musical Occasions, and various cover/event bands.
By Peter Serravalle
Keeping in Shape
W
hat’s the first thing that
comes out of your hands
when you pick up the
guitar?
For me, it's the guitar part for "Cool"
from Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story,
and for good reason. That part has it all.
Keeping your hands in shape when
you're busy gigging should be a prior-
ity (with rest being equally important
as well). Let's face it; sometimes we are
going to be doing gigs that we are over-
qualified to do, and hey, that's great! But
in that case, it’s especially important for
us to keep inspired, motivated, and to
feel like our hands are so strong we can
rip a phone book in half.
Here's a short of list of material that
I like to keep in rotation, regardless of
which gig(s) I might be playing at any
given time. It's comprised of differ-
ent styles serving different purposes.
1. Bach (Single line, with the pick)
I mean, c'mon! Does this really need any
explanation? It's all there. Bach's sonatas
and partitas for solo violin in particular
offer many challenges for the guitarist to
conquer: fingering, phrasing, awareness
of single lines moving through chord
changes, compound lines, counter-
point, etc. They are well worth the time
cultivating, and if you want to kick it up
another notch, play them in a couple
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of different keys to really get your brain
working. There's something about Bach,
and this goes for all music of course, but
when you're playing it, you're learning
(and hearing) so much at the same time.
As an improviser, the devoted study of
his single-line works are an impera-
tive component of our development.
2. Classical Guitar
I don't care what anyone says – nothing
gives your hands a better workout than
classical guitar. Dust off that old nylon
string that's been sitting in the corner, or
if you don't have one, go pick up an inex-
pensive one from your local music store.
I assure you that you won’t regret it.
Honing some skills on this instru-
ment is a different bag altogether. It's
just you and an acoustic guitar. That's
it! It really focuses us to get our coor-
dination together as well as the most
important skill of all: listening! Tone
production, phrasing, squeaks, pre-
sentation of both hands, left and right
hand development… I owe a massive
amount of my development to classical
guitar, and I don't regret any of it for a
second. Aside from the run of the mill
kitchen sink scales and arpeggios, check
out the etudes of Heitor Villa-Lobos and
Leo Brouwer. It's also worthwhile to have
some repertoire in the bag, too. Have
at least 10 pieces that you find enjoy-
able to perform and can play relatively
well (enjoyable being the key word).
3. Solos
Remember when you were 16 and you
learned the solo to “Foxy Lady?” Do you
still remember it? Having a compen-
dium of solos under your hands in
different styles is a great investment
and something well worth cultivat-
ing. Sometimes it’s easy to get caught
up in one style, and in fact, this is im-
portant. It's important to go through
phases where we are focused on one
thing for a while, as this is one of the
best ways to get the most out of said
style. But it is also nice to maintain
those solos from when we first start-
ed playing the guitar or took a deep
dive in a particularly obscure genre,
which reminds us of why we picked
up the guitar in the first place! I didn't
come to jazz and classical music seri-
ously until I was 20 years old; I started
off with rock music and all of its sub
genres like many players of my genera-
tion. All those tunes are still a big part
of me and it's a good feeling to know
that they are there when I need them.
That's the beautiful thing about music:
it becomes a part of us, and the great
thing is that we can always add more
to the stock.
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