What a Wonderful World is a beautiful song composed by Bob Thiele and George David Weiss and sung by the great jazz trumpeter/singer, Louis Armstrong. I first heard this song from the movie, Good Morning, Vietnam. This is one of those perfect songs. Perfect melody, perfect words and perfect singer for this song.
Nothing Else Matters is one of my favorite all-time songs. I remember when it first came out that I tried to play it but at that time, I was only playing electric and not fingerpicking. The song comes from their Black album which was released in 1991. Songwriting credits for this song are by James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich.
This is a great song for the fingerstyle/classical guitar player. For this arrangement, I used variation for the verse sections. Guitar solos in guitar versions of songs I always find difficult to arrange for solo guitar. I could play the solo but then I would lack the extra fingers to play the bass and rhythm guitar parts or I could play the backing part but then wouldn’t have the solo. For the last solo I decided to play the backing part, put try and add rasgueados to make things louder.
In the Hall of the Mountain King performed by Robert Lunn
In the Hall of the Mountain King comes from Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt, Suite No. 1. I have always loved how this builds in the orchestral version.
I tried to make this arrangement as easy as possible while still keeping the integrity of the original. For this guitar lesson I am teaching the arrangement that comes from my second volume of easy arrangements.
This theme comes from the movie, Pirates of the Caribbean and is the track called, He’s A Pirate. The soundtrack was composed by Hans Zimmer along with Klaus Badelt.
Pirates of the Caribbean is one of my favorite movies and I have always loved the music from this film. Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow was fantastic.
Prelude No. 1 by Villa-Lobos performed by Robert Lunn
I have always loved this piece bu Heitor Villa-Lobos. It might be my favorite guitar piece originally composed for the guitar. Leyenda is my favorite piece but it wasn’t originally composed for the guitar. I remember when I first heard this song.
I had just started studying classical guitar and I heard a recording of Christopher Parkening playing it and I thought…I have to learn this!! The next time I saw my guitar teacher I asked him if I could learn it and we had a lesson on it. I was so excited to learn it that I went back to my dorm and started learning it. Actually, I started working on it in the lobby of my dorm room because my roommate was still asleep.
I love the 5 preludes by Villa-Lobos. I have played all of them at one time or another. In fact, I used to perform the 5 preludes together in concerts. The first, second, and fourth are my personal favorites.
A long time ago I participated in a masterclass with Christopher Parkening and I played the fourth prelude for him. My personal favorite version of the piece would be Christopher Parkening’s version. It might be because that was the version I heard first. I also really enjoy the versions by Julian Bream and Andres Segovia.
La Campanella is a melody that comes from Niccolo Paganini’s second Violin Concerto. Franz Liszt later used this melody in his famous piano piece.
I tried to simplify this arrangement as much as I could while still keeping the integrity of the melody. I originally made this arrangement for a guitar student of mine.
In this video I decided to record a practice session for a 1/2 hour. The first half is the first movement from Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata (Piano Sonata No. 14) and the second half is the Lacrimosa movement from the Requiem by Mozart.
Both are fairly new arrangements that I have made. The moonlight sonata arrangement was made back in the fall and the Lacrimosa was made over the Christmas break. These are two of my favorite pieces.
I decided to keep the good, bad and ugly in this practice video. I hope you enjoy watching and listening!
Here is a full guitar lesson on an easy arrangement I made of the famous song, Malaguena. It’s a passionate song that I always imagine two passionate lovers dancing to it when I play it.
I have always loved this song and decided to finally make an arrangement of it. The arrangement is in two parts. There is an opening section, which is then repeated at the end. There is also a slower, song-like middle section.
This guitar lesson is of an easy arrangement I made of Pachelbel’s Canon in D. I have made two arrangements of this over the years- this one, and a harder version. This is a popular song and I have played this so many times at weddings over the years.
Johann Pachelbel originally composed this for 3 violins and basso continuo. Most arrangements I hear aren’t an actual canon. Most are either passacaglia’s (repeated bass lines) or chaconne’s (repeated chord progressions). Somehow, Passacaglia in D doesn’t have the same ring to it! Haha.
