The Holly in the Windy Hedge I wrote this piece as a Christmas song and The Holly in the Windy Hedge, is in *minor tone of my favorite traditional English Christmas carols. I based this tune upon a phrase in the poem: Christmas, by John […]

Billie Eilish My job as a private guitar teacher keeps me young. I’m 41 at the moment, and long past the age where most people take in new music. My peers have retreated to the music of the college years, only popping their head above […]

The Landing First Man, is the first-person account of Neil Armstrong’s moon landing. The movie explores the cost, sacrifice, and danger of the NASA mission from 1961 to 1969. The Landing, by composer Justin Hurwitz is arguably best piece of music from First Man. It’s essentially the same tense motif […]

Hairclip Hairclip is the guitar variant of the True Blood “love theme” by composer Nathan Barr. True Blood was a GREAT show, and I always thought the score was exceptional. The music had a slight Celtic/Appellation theme to it, that worked really well in the […]

Fields of Gold Fields of Gold has long been one of my favorite songs from Sting. It first appeared on his 4th studio album, Ten Summoner’s Tales (1993). In his book Lyrics By Sting, the singer described the view from his 16th-century Wiltshire manor house, which […]

All Gone (No Escape) All Gone (No Escape) is originally an orchestral piece. It’s arguably the most achingly beautiful selection from The Last of Us soundtrack. It was fun to imagine what Gustavo Santaolalla might’ve played on guitar. The piece turned out to be a […]

Suspiria Suspiria is a 1977 Italian supernatural horror film directed by Dario Argento. The 2018 version of Suspiria is directed by Luca Guadagnino (Call me By Your Name). The 2018 plot of Suspiria focuses on a young American dancer who enrolls at a prestigious dance […]

We Move Lightly This has always been one of my favorite pieces by Dustin O’Halloran, who is among best contemporary composers. I performed We Move Lightly on years ago on this blog, but I wanted to do a refreshed performance. Although We Move Lightly is […]

Spanish Arpeggios and Trills An étude is a short musical composition designed as an exercise to improve a specific technique or demonstrate a particular skill. This arpeggio exercise was a section from a mediocre song I wrote years ago. However, I feel this riff is […]

Cephale Papillon is a 2017 drama film that tells the story of French convict Henri Charrière (nicknamed Papillon) — who was falsely imprisoned at the Devil’s Island penal colony in 1933. Papillon escaped in 1941 with the help of another convict, counterfeiter Louis Dega. The […]

Porch I love this piece at the end of Infinity War as Thanos limps out to his porch. I mildly get into these Avenger movies. I’ve seen them all, and I suppose my favorites were the first Iron Man, and Thor: Ragnarok. However, Infinity War […]

Children of the New Dawn I’ve been obsessing over Children of the New Dawn for months. Johannsson perfectly captured the generic sound of 1983 with a driving “Eye of the Tiger” note and the deliberately mono half-time drum kit. What a massive loss Johannsson was […]