Fireflies

Fireflies is by pianist/composer Stephan Moccio, from his 2021 album, Lionheart. Stephan Moccio is one of my recent finds on Spotify. He’s an Italian/Canadian composer. I love his work. You’ll want to think of him in terms of the post-classical space like: Dustin O’Halloran, Johann Johannsson, and Max Richter.

I love the production on Fireflies — where you can here the mic gain and the pressing of the keys — as though you’re sitting right beside the piano.  This is an en vogue form of production in the post-classical space. I’m trying to figure out how to do it for my own recordings.

Additionally, Fireflies is glorious example of minimalism in music. Just one simple chord progression and melody. I’d be curious if he actually wrote this for a film and it went unused.

You might also like to play…

Max Richter: The Leftovers | fingerstyle guitar + TAB

Johann Johannsson: Flight from the City | fingerstyle guitar + TAB

Dustin O’Halloran: An Ending, a Beginning | fingerstyle guitar + TAB

How to play Fireflies | fingerstyle guitar

The guitar tab for Fireflies is beautifully written across two pages. It’s fairly easy to play. I recommend it for intermediate guitar players and up. However, beginners can definitely give it a shot.

Enjoy, the guitar tab is available below:

This arrangement is essentially one long passage played twice through. I’ve given you the names of the implied chords above the tab. Here’s my order of play, in accordance with the guitar tab.

Intro, Verse 2x

Intro, Verse 2x, End

Stephan Moccio: Fireflies | fingerstyle guitar

To make it easier to play, and make the chord shapes more resonant, I came up with a clever tuning for this piece:

(6-1) D A D G C E. Then I place a capo on the 2nd fret. That brings the tuning to (6-1) E B E A D F#. However, you can play this piece in any capo position you wish. [Place your capo on the 1st fret for the tone of the original piece.]