Beetlejuice

Beetlejuice’s signature brand of chaos is accompanied by the music of Danny Elfman — a name synonymous with quirky, unforgettable melodies. His music has long been a staple of Tim Burton’s imaginative and gothic worlds;  including Edward Scissorhands, Batman, Alice in Wonderland, and Corpse Bride. His playful and sinister undertones perfectly narrate Beetlejuice’s blend of comedy and horror.

This one of my favorite musical themes from my childhood, but I couldn’t imagine how I’d do it as a fingerstyle arrangement. So…when in doubt…think like Gustavo Santaolalla! I did The Last of Us thing for the quirky bass line, and some sparce intervals for the melody line.

My own personal touch was adding a snippet of Day-O in the intro (ending on a minor) to introduce the main theme. I then used Day-O as the outro, ending on the major.

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How to play the Beetlejuice theme | fingerstyle guitar

The guitar tab for this piece is beautifully written across a single page. I recommend this arrangement for beginner guitar players and up. Enjoy! The guitar tab is available below:

My song structure looks like this, in accordance with the guitar tab:

Intro, Main 2x, Verse 1

Main 1x, Verse 2, Main 2x

End

**Beetlejuice Beetlejuice: Main Title Theme | fingerstyle guitar

This arrangement is played in an open A minor tuning. Here’s how you’ll do it:

Tune your guitar like this, from low to high: D G D G A# D. You’ll then put a capo on the 2nd fret.

(A# might be listed as Bb on your guitar tuner)