“We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

Give your mind a break. Play guitar.

It is critical to play guitar at least once a day. If anything, to give your mind a break while doing something constructive.

Learning a song on Intellimusica is giving my mind a break, really? Yes. Whenever, you're immersed in something, you've let go, just a little bit, of your perceived reality. One of the unconscious reasons gaming is so popular, is that people are immersed in a one-dimensional activity. Your mind shifts away from consistent chaos of day-to-day living.

I teach a surgeon who's into rock-climbing for this very reason: there's no room to think about anything else but your next hand placement. A weekend of rock-climbing in Montana allows him to mentally "check out".

Guitar playing is also a great way to meditate. Accomplished transcendental meditation practitioners would probably disagree, but I personally can't concentrate on anything else when I'm playing guitar, or writing this blog for that matter.

That's why I'm so prolific with Intellimusica. Creating arrangements and writing blog posts is a meditative experience for me -- coupled with a satisfying result in the end.

If we consider Fredrich Nietzsche's quote, the art of play becomes lost (on some of us) as we enter into adulthood. The reason we work hard -- is to afford the opportunity to play guitar, dance, paint, or pursue other passions. It's essential to pick up your guitar once a day, not so much for your skills, but for your mental health.

[If you get the chance, check out Jim Carrey's commencement speech. It's awesome. The content will be lost on some, but for others, it will be exactly what you need to hear.]

How to play Demimonde (the theme of Penny Dreadful) for classical guitar

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I haven't seen Penny Dreadful yet, but I intend to. If for no other reason than Eva Green is flat-out the most arrestingly beautiful woman in the world. Any moment watching her is a moment well spent. Not quite Nietzsche, but that's an honest quote.

Back to music. Abel Korezeniowski is an accomplished composer of music for film. His W.E theme was one of my firsts posts on Intellimusica.

Korzeniowki's theme for Penny Dreadful is called Demimonde (Main Title). Demimonde is a beautiful piece of music that really opens up at about at 0.40 into the actual song. The opening section of Demimonde was difficult to convey on guitar, so I focused on the latter part (that I really wanted to play anyway.)

The end result, is a relatively easy to play guitar piece that sounds like a cross between an old-west and Bond theme. While Demimonde is not a total walk in the park, this song is good for beginner guitar players to build skill due to the song's repetition and short duration.

The guitar tab is available below: