The Shape of Water (and the Academy Awards) I’ve had a ton of requests to arrange music from The Shape of Water: a 2017 American fantasy drama film directed by Guillermo del Toro. The music must really be resonating with people. Composer, Alexandre Desplat, is also […]

The Deer Written by Carter Burwell, The Deer, is the sentimental theme from Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. This theme is also known from the score as, My Dear Anne, and Can’t give up Hope. All three themes have a delicate guitar line as well […]

Phantom Thread III As a massive fan of both Jonny Greenwood and Paul Thomas Anderson, I could not wait to arrange the theme of Phantom Thread for my guitar. I had been working on another giant piece of music for this blog, but nothing was […]

Brokeback Mountain 1 Gustavo Santaolalla’s Brokeback Mountain 1 is my favorite piece of music ever. It informs, literally, all of my guitar playing. It’s the sole reason for this blog, and serves as a grounding principle for my musicality: minimalism. When in doubt, play less. […]

Billie Eilish Billie Eilish is a 16 year-old Los Angeles based singer/songwriter. Her older brother, Finneas O’Connell, is Billie’s songwriting partner and producer. Her song, ocean eyes, is just beginning to hit with my young guitar students. I’ve taught this song a dozen times already […]

Beverly Composer Benjamin Wallfisch’s IT score, is one of the great scores of 2017. I’m still enjoying the music, even two months removed from seeing the movie. Beverly was a much requested piece from the score. If you’ve seen the movie, this music is played […]

Amores Perros Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, Amores Perros (2001) is an ambitious story of lives that collide in a Mexico City car crash. Inventively structured as overlapping and intersecting narratives. Gustavo Santaolalla initially said no to this project, because he was too busy producing […]

The Polar Express Composer Alan Silvestri’s The Polar Express theme is a modern classic, and I think of it in the same caliber — as any of the classic John Williams movie themes. Even though The Polar Express was released in my adulthood (2004) I […]

Hawkins Hawkins, Indiana — the setting of Stranger Things — is actually a fictional small town invented by the show’s creators, the Duffer brothers. In development, the series was originally to be called Montauk, a real-life coastal town on Long Island, New York — and […]

Halloween Carpenter himself has been touring in support of his new album, Anthology: Movie Themes 1974-1998. In addition to directing, John Carpenter wrote and performed the music for most of his movies. He started with low budget horror films (Halloween 1978) where it was essential […]

Don’t Come Around Here No More Very sad news about Tom Petty. He was a favorite of just about everybody. I had the opportunity to see him live a half dozen times since high school, AND just this past June — where he looked and […]

Tears In the Rain I would also strongly add Vangelis as the principal composer of this song. “Tears In Rain” minus a (the) is from the original iconic Blade Runner (1982) soundtrack. Tears in the Rain is nearly a verbatim replicant (sorry had to) of […]