The Brutalist The Brutalist is a film is about a Hungarian-Jewish architect named László Tóth. Having just survived the horrors of the Holocaust, László seeks refuge and a fresh start in the United States. Being separated from his wife during the war — he carries […]

When I Sleep, Your Eyes Close I wrote and recorded this song in 2016. It was intended for a film (that I was ultimately fired from, lol). The song is very easy to play, as I tried to pick the low hanging fruit and not […]

First Love and the Falling Snow I wrote “First Love and the Falling Snow” for my wife, Jennifer — as we approach our 23rd Wedding Anniversary in just a few days. Foremost in my memory is one of our early dates in 1998. (As a […]

Leaves From The Vine Leaves From The Vine was recommended to me by one of my guitar students. This piece is from the original anime series, Avatar: The Last Airbender. I thought it was beautiful and poignant. There’s also a nice orchestrated version from the […]

Wake Me Up When September Ends (Jonathan’s Version) I couldn’t stand Green Day. I respected the band as musicians and songwriters, but as a guitar teacher, they’ve been the bane of my existence for 30 years. A constant deluge of ever changing power chord riffs […]

The Last of Us (HBO) The HBO series “The Last of Us” is a critically acclaimed adaptation of the popular video game. Contributing to the show’s atmosphere, is the soundtrack by composer Gustavo Santaolalla. Having also composed the music for the original game, Santaolalla’s work […]

21 Grams I completely lifted my right-hand technique from composer, Gustavo Santaolalla. He effectively arpeggiates chord shapes by rolling through them with his fingers. This is a beautiful way to voice chords, and pretty easy to do with a little practice. The best way to […]

Interstellar This must be Hans Zimmer’s greatest complete score. While The Dark Knight, and Gladiator have their selections — the entire score of Interstellar is wondrous and immensely listenable. The central theme of Interstellar has a few iterations within the soundtrack. My fingerstyle version is […]