Memoria Memoria is a pretty motif from Gustavo Santaolalla’s Narcos: Mexico soundtrack. He’s actually playing an electric guitar that’s doubled with a violin. Given that dynamic, Memoria sounded better on a nylon string, as a lone guitar performance. You might also like to play… (some […]

The Last Kingdom The Last Kingdom is a historical fiction (Netflix) series based on a series of novels entitled, The Saxon Stories by English author Bernard Cornwell. The television series is like early Game of Thrones; fast-paced storytelling, well developed character arcs, and replete with […]

Wayfaring Stranger The Wayfaring Stranger is a well-known American folk and gospel song that originating in the early 19th century. The song is about a plaintive soul on the journey of life. The most popular variation is from Johnny Cash. In my humble opinion, Jos […]

Finch Finch on Apple + was a beautiful and highly entertaining movie: In a post-apocalyptic world, Finch (Tom Hanks) knowing that his health is slowly failing, builds a robot to take of his dog after he passes. The robot was played by the delightfully weird, […]

Johann Johannsson Jóhann Jóhannsson was an extraordinary Icelandic composer. For a period of time, he lead the modern post-classical movement — which is identified with experimental, minimalist, and electronic music. He passed away in February 2018 at the age of 48. Jóhann is best known […]

Mare of Easttown Mare of Easttown was an awesome limited series on HBO. I was emailing back and forth with my friend Derek about the finale this week. His synoptic take was better than anything I could write: “Mare of Easttown was a stunning piece […]

Calmamente Calmamente is from the soundtrack of Qhapaq Ñan — Gustavo Santaolalla’s docuseries about the pre-Columbian ‘Inca road system’, which winds for 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles) through the Andean region. It’s a serene song that exemplifies Santaolalla’s minimalist ability to extract the maximum from a few […]

Their First Time Their First Time, by composer Adam Taylor, is the standout piece from the Hulu original series, The Handmaid’s Tale. I love the simplicity and repetition of this motif. My hope is to pair back my own songwriting to something this sparse and […]

Intro by The xx Within my lifestyle as a guitar teacher and guitar blogger, nothing is more apparent to me, then people’s lack of self-confidence, or perceived status, as a guitarist. I’m not immune either. However, it’s important to realize that it’s often your identity […]

Only Solitude I adore this piece of music from Gustavo Santaolalla’s Monsterland soundtrack. So creative, so beautiful. While it’s actually played on a violin, I reimagined it as a solo guitar piece in Santaolalla’s signature, minimalist style. You might also like to play… The Haunting […]

Interstellar This must be Hans Zimmer’s greatest complete score. While The Dark Knight, and Gladiator have their selections — the entire score of Interstellar is wondrous and immensely listenable. The central theme of Interstellar has a few iterations within the soundtrack. My fingerstyle version is […]

A Christmas Carol (2019) “What was the purpose of our gross accumulation?” – Jacob Marley A Christmas Carol (2019) is a British miniseries (starring Guy Pearce) based on the 1843 novella of the same name by Charles Dickens. It aired on FX in the United […]