Grease is the word

Grease is a fun, short and relatively easy show to play. If you’re an inexperienced guitarist looking to “get your feet wet” in musical theatre, this is one for you to try.

There are two guitar parts, both printed in a single pad. In the two recent productions I’ve played for, I covered Guitar 1 in one show and combined both parts in the other (playing with just keys, bass and drums).

[Note to prospective MDs: The standard orchestration for amateur theatre is for two guitars and two saxes, in a 7-piece band. If your budget won’t stretch that far, I’d recommend cutting one of the saxes ahead of one of the guitars, as the saxes don’t play in some numbers, and do quite a bit in unison when they are in. If you need a 5-piece band, then go with one of each; having at least one sax really adds to the authenticity of the sound.]

Gearwise, I used my Strat and a single patch on my multi-fx pedalboard. The amp model was set to a clean Fender-type sound (Twin or Bassman) with clean boost, overdrive, slapback (around 100ms) delay and tremolo available on the footswitches. I ran through a DI into the front-of-house sound-desk and into a small powered wedge for monitoring around the band.

Most of the music is pretty simple, being based on 50s forms (ie, blues, I-vi-IV-V7 progressions etc.) Many of the songs are driven by the guitar part, so it’s important to play with confidence even if it’s not precisely what’s on the page. A few sections are notated, but most is simply playing authentic rhythm parts/arpeggios through the chords. Quite a few numbers start on Guitar 1 with Guitar 2 joining in for the chorus, second verse etc. Standard two-guitar etiquette applies: if one of you is playing high on the neck, the other should stay low on the neck and use different voicings.

There are a couple of brief solos: Guitar 1 solos through the scene change at the end of the opening, while Guitar 2 trades solos with Sax 1 in “Born to Hand Jive”, and everyone gets a turn soloing over the exit music. Again, think simple rock’n’roll – no shredding, please!

There are a couple of numbers that need a bit more concentration:

• “There Are Worse Things I Could Do” has a more jazzy/torch song progression, so you’ll need to think about voicings for your X7b5s and descending basslines.
• “Hopelessly Devoted To You” again has a more interesting chord sequence, and some faux-pedal steel licks go well if you can fit them in.
• “You’re The One That I Want” was written specially for the film, so it wasn’t in the original score (and, thus, isn’t in the pad) but you can’t expect audiences to come to see Grease and not hear one of the numbers everyone knows! For one production, the MD arranged it, while in the other we just busked it (verse in Gm, chorus in Eb). Because it’s more disco than rock’n’roll in style, I did hit the wah-wah a little…

So, if you’re just starting out as a musical theatre guitarist and someone asks if you’ll play for their production of Grease, say yes! It’s great fun to do, and will give you a chance to stretch your reading/playing skills before you take on a harder show.