Hans Zimmer: The Dark Knight Rises | fingerstyle guitar
Photo by Zach Heiberg on Unsplash

The Dark Knight Rises

My hometown of Pittsburgh was the shooting location for The Dark Knight Rises. Many movies, TV, and Netflix shows are shot in Pittsburgh — but the 2011 Dark Knight Rises production was BY FAR the coolest one. Our downtown area is mostly comprised of high-rise office buildings, gothic looking architecture, and the odd bagel shop. It’s not heavily traversed either — as most of the destination locations in the city of Pittsburgh are just outside of downtown. You couldn’t ask for a better “Gotham” — or an easier production site.

Regular Pittsburgh folks, Heinz Field, and even the Steelers were used as extras. Anyone could head to the filming locations and watch the production. Here’s a dated but fun slide show of what the production looked like in Pittsburgh. 

Of course the music by Hans Zimmer is legendary at this point. This guitar arrangement is a medley of ‘On Thin Ice’ and ‘Why Do We Fall?’ — two of my favorite pieces from The Dark Knight Rises soundtrack. Over the years, many people have asked me to play ‘Rise’ from the soundtrack. However, there’s just not much for me to “mentally chew on” from that piece. To me, the main theme is Why Do We Fall? — while On Thin Ice has all of these neat little motifs.

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How to play The Dark Knight Rises | fingerstyle guitar

The guitar tab for this piece is beautifully written across 4 pages. I recommend it for intermediate guitar players and up. I hope you enjoy playing it as much as I do — the guitar tab is available below:

As mentioned above, the guitar tab is 4 pages long, and you’ll play it straight through. I’ve given you the names of the relevant chord shapes above the tab as well.

On page #1, you’ll take care to repeat the sections within the repeat brackets. On page #2 you’ll notice an interval trailed by a . . . . The four dots indicate for you to play that 3 note interval 4x. Writing it this way actually make the guitar tab more legible and easier to read.

*Hans Zimmer: The Dark Knight Rises | fingerstyle guitar

Additionally you’ll see the interval dots on page #4 as well. In that instance you’ll play the interval 5x or . . . . .

The Dark Knight Rises is tuned one whole step down. From low to high: D G C F A D. You could just as easily play the guitar tab in standard tuning as well.