Intellimusica

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen is an English traditional Christmas carol — also known as Tidings of Comfort and Joy. It is one of the oldest carols, dating back to the 16th century. I was inspired by Loreena McKennitt’s ethereal […]

Abby and Owen This motif is an unreleased track from The Last Of Us Part II by Gustavo Santaolalla. It’s relatively easy to play and works as a perfectly as an etude (a composition built on a technical motive — but played for its artistic […]

Matera Matera is my favorite piece from Hans Zimmer’s No Time To Die score. The key and positioning left me no choice but to add You Only Live Twice here and there as well. This is the final James Bond film for Daniel Craig, who […]

D U N E Hans Zimmer’s DUNE soundtrack is absolutely gnarly. It played out brilliantly in the film too. Personally, I don’t know much about Dune (the book). The synopsis seems incredibly complicated — and it’s clearly been tough to bring this story to life […]

Futile Devices Futile Devices is a song by American singer songwriter, Sufjan Stevens. This song is from the soundtrack of, Call Me By Your Name; a 2017 coming-of-age romantic drama film, directed by Luca Guadagnino. Sufjan Stevens has such a peculiar musicality. He has the linear […]

Léon Léon is one of my all time favorite movies. Starring Natalie Portman, Jean Reno, and Gary Oldman — Léon: The Professional is an amazingly casted and highly entertaining crime/thriller. When it was first released (on VHS) in 1994 is was simply called The Professional. […]

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 […]

The Princess Bride The Princess Bride (1987) is a fantasy adventure comedy directed by Rob Reiner.  It was adapted from the 1973 novel of the same name, and tells the story of Westly — who must rescue his true love, Princess Buttercup, from the odious Prince Humperdinck. […]

Outer Banks: Midsummers (guitar theme) This piece is very obscure, but I had a bunch of folks request this all at once on YouTube, Instagram, etc. Although it’s a great riff — it might only appeal to fans of the Netflix series, Outer Banks. The […]

The Bones The Bones is a song by pop/country star, Maren Morris. Six months after its release in 2019, the song was reimagined with Hozier singing the second verse. I love this song, and I’ve been teaching the basic version to my guitar students recently. […]

Blome Swete Lilie Flour Daniel Hart is one of my favorite composers . He often pairs with director, David Lowery (The Green Knight) — and has a very distinct tonality to his music. No matter how many instruments he uses — it always feels like […]

Traitor I’ve taught Olivia Rodrigo’s Traitor at least a dozen times to my guitar students. It’s an excellent song both lyrically and melodically. The lyrical theme is brilliant. The “boyfriend dates girl that ex-girlfriend doesn’t like” is an ageless conflict that no one has articulated […]