By: Gloria Cortes
Progressive acoustic guitarist Trevor Gordon Hall held a public clinic and performance at Volunteer State Community College Nov. 1.
The event was in room 157 of the Steinhager-Rogan-Black Humanities Building, and it took place from 1:30-3 p.m.
“A decent crowd was here, but it could have been better,” said Music Department Chair Benjamin Graves.
Hall played several pieces and answered crowd members’ questions between songs. The songs he performed were: “Pine Trees and Powerlines”, “I Will”, “A Severe Mercy”, “The Meeting at the Window”, “Kalimbatar”, and “Skylark”.
This selection included some of his original work, like “Kalimbatar”, as well as covers, like “I Will” by The Beatles, that featured the kalimba, also known as a thumb piano.
Hall shared his musical experiences and spoke about his kalimbatar project, where he has attached a kalimba to his guitar and has been arranging music that features both instruments.
“The kalimbatar project has deepened my appreciation for music for sure. Now, I’m thinking with different tones, like I can play guitar and grab an entirely different sound from a different instrument just a couple of inches away. It makes me think of melodies differently, and I hear chords differently,” said Hall.
Graves said this event was to inform people, music majors, and non-music students alike, about progressive guitar music.
“I’m always interested in trying to bring as much different culture to campus as possible. I’ve been teaching here for years and I’ve never heard anything like Trevor Hall on campus, so I thought, ‘Let’s have a different flavor of a guitar player, because this is Nashville,’ and I have a buddy who teaches at MTSU and recommended Trevor,” said Graves.
Along with guitar-specific tips, Hall gave advice for music majors at Vol State.
“There’s always going to be the pieces that you have to work on, promoting yourself as a musician, all of this stuff that will get between you and your instrument. Make sure you keep your emotional connection to the instrument alive at all costs, because everything that gets between you two is going to feel like a foreign object, and you’re going to eventually grow to hate it,” said Hall.
The audience applauded for Hall between songs and for the end of the event, and several audience members asked more questions while Hall was packing up.
“I liked Hall’s original stuff. I thought it was really cool, really innovative. I think this was a new experience for Vol State, we’ve never had a masterclass like this before,” said Vol State sophomore Kendahl Oakley.
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