Striking different chords
No genre is safe when international guitar heroes gather on the same stage
It’s not every day that Michael Chapdelaine hears a pop song he likes enough to add to his repertoire.
But the one-time National Fingerpicking Championship winner has written arrangements for some songs that might surprise classical or bluegrass guitar fans. Tears for Fears’ Mad World, Gotye’s Somebody That I Used to Know, and even Miley Cyrus’s Wrecking Ball have all received the Chapdelaine treatment.
“Understatedly, it has to be a tune that really appeals to me,” he said. “I don’t necessarily have my ear out for it. Something will just land on me. My wife listens to pop music a lot, and she’ll say, ‘Have you heard this?’ ”
The New Mexico-based musician is one of four guitarists coming to the Massey Theatre as part of International Guitar Night. The other three are Lulo Reinhardt, Calum Graham, and Marek Pasieczny. Each performs a 15-20 minute solo set before the evening turns collaborative with duos and quartets.
Reinhardt is the grand-nephew of celebrated Gypsy-style guitarist Django.
“Lulo can literally play anything,” Chapdelaine said. “If you just whistle a symphony by Shostakovich, he can play it. He’s primarily playing jazzy, swingy stuff, and some ethnic Gypsy stuff, too.”
Pasieczny is a classical guitarist from Poland. Chapdelaine expects him to play some original jazz pieces. (The four have already played European tour dates together.)
At 26, Graham is the youngest. He’s originally from High River, Alta. Chapdelaine calls him “this wonder boy from Canada who does this kind of Michael Hedges kind of playing.” (Hedges is known for his atmospheric playing and compositions.)
“I’m kind of the wild card,” the 61-year-old Chapdelaine said. “I’ll play anything. Certainly some classical music. I’ll play some originals. And I will absolutely play some Beatles and some rock ’n’ roll stuff. Sometimes I’ll even play a country tune.”
Writing an arrangement for a pop song is no easy task. Chapdelaine figures he spent three months on Somebody That I Used to Know.
“It might be the hardest thing that I do,” he said. “That’s including Bach fugues. There’s almost nothing as hard as keeping that percussion going, and the bassline, and playing the melody. It has to be a great song for me to work that hard.”
Wrecking Ball’s similarities to ’80s hair-metal power ballads are what struck the guitarist about the Miley Cyrus hit.
“It’s got the heard-hitting rhythm bash at the front and a really powerful chorus, and then it has that tender place in the middle like those hair bands used to do,” he said. “I think it’s a fabulous song. The words didn’t do much for me. If I’d heard that as an instrumental, I would have loved it. I just had to learn it.”
Along with the National Fingerpicking Championship, Chapdelaine has won numerous other awards, including the Guitar Foundation of America International Classical Guitar Competition.
These days, he performs solo or with fellow guitarists in events like International Guitar Night, and posts videos to showcase his playing and arrangements. He’s also a professor of guitar at the University of New Mexico.