I just had to do this one. I haven’t even seen the movie, but the James Newton Howard’s score is very effective even so. If you’re new to this blog, The Hunger Games score made for some unusual posts because they actually had guitar parts. […]

James Newton Howard’s Healing Katniss is the last of the four guitar-centric songs from The Hunger Games original score — and the most difficult. These types of minutia oriented songs are difficult for me to memorize and comprehension is truly half the battle when learning anything. […]

Regardless of the hype surrounding the books and the movie, James Newton Howard’s eclectic score for The Hunger Games is awesome. As a whole, The Hunger Games score is multi-textural, with nearly every song creating it’s own stand-out theme.  Continuing with the sparse guitar parts, […]

While nowhere near as easy as The Hunger Games opening titles, (James Newton Howard’s) Rue’s Farewell is an exquisitely beautiful piece and a perfect song for the practicing guitar player. I’m fairly confident that Rue’s Farewell is actually two guitar tracks so once you’re able to […]

Played in standard tuning, The Hunger Games opening titles (by James Newton Howard) is an excellent song for beginner guitar players and fans of The Hunger Games alike.  If you’d like something a bit more challenging, try Rue’s Farewell. Have fun, the tab is available below: […]

Wedding Vows by Rachel Portman and Michael Brook is a beautiful little song from The Vow original score. Wedding Vow’s step and rest feel almost perfectly matches the cadence of a bride walking down the aisle, and I have no doubt that it will become […]

Cliff Martinez’s largely ambient score for Drive is slickly punctuated with several retro 80’s inspired songs from Kavinsky, Desire, and College (feat. Electric Youth). While adding to the highly stylized aura of the film, this approach also made certain scenes really “pop” in the otherwise […]

(Note: This post is well over a year old, but is only gaining traction now, with the release of The Last Of Us. If you’re new to my blog, you can check out more of Santaolalla’s work here. Please consider ‘liking’ or sharing this post. […]

Whether its the loss of my own father when I was 14, or that I have experienced the challenges (and ultimately the joys) of teaching children with autism/Asperger’s — I can hardly make it through the  trailer for Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close without being […]

[Updated for 2017] Next to the Brokeback Mountain Suite, Riding Horses is my favorite selection from Gustavo Santaolalla’s iconic, Academy Award winning score for Brokeback Mountain. This music is literally the whole reason for my guitar style, this blog, musical philosophy, etc. It’s not just […]

[Updated: August 2017] Lima Lima is one of my favorite tracks from Gustavo Santaolalla’s The Motorcycle Diaries soundtrack. Rather than (his usual) simple playing approach, Lima really displays Santaolalla’s guitar prowess. I had an opportunity to see Gustavo Santaolalla play live in Pittsburgh with his band Bajofondo. […]

[Updated September 2017] Biutiful Biutiful stars Javier Bardem and is directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu (The Revenant, Birdman). Biutiful is a love story between a father and his children. Uxbal (Bardem) is a conflicted man who struggles to reconcile fatherhood, guilt, and mortality amidst the […]