The Wings

The Wings completes my arrangements for the Oscar winning Brokeback Mountain Soundtrack by Gustavo Santaolalla. This song is what initially drew me into Gustavo Santaolalla’s film score work, way back in 2005. The film was very controversial then, and I remember cleaning my apartment, and hearing The Wings on a television advertisement for Brokeback Mountain. I was blown away at the simple majesty of the music. Just a single acoustic guitar.

From there, the exquisite theme Brokeback Mountain 1 changed the way I think about music (and my guitar playing) forever.

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My complete arrangements for Gustavo Santaolalla’s Brokeback Mountain score.

How to play The Wings by Gustavo Santaolalla

The guitar tab for The Wings is beautifully written across 3 pages, and played straight though without repeats. This arrangement is relatively easy to play, as there are no difficult chord shapes. However, the various finger-style techniques might be a bit confusing for less experienced guitar players.

Enjoy, the guitar tab is available below:

Within the *2nd section I’m arpeggiating the chord with my right hand — a technique I borrow from none other than, Gustavo Santaolalla. I put my (right hand) thumb, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd fingers on the strings — then peel them off one by one like a can opener. Its a beautiful way to articulate a rather simple chord.

From there, I lazily strum with my thumb hitting the bass note, and my 2nd finger hitting the two high notes of the chord in an upward swiping motion.

In the 3rd strumming section (with a guitar pick) I’ve indicated my strum with a D (down) and U (up) below the tablature. On the relative chord you’ll see D DUD. That means you’ll strum Down – Down, Up , Down.

Finally, I added a simple country lick of my own to round out the piece. The notes in the diamond symbol are natural harmonics.

**Gustavo Santaolalla: The Wings (Brokeback Mountain)

The Wings is played in standard tuning.