Hermano, by Tom Farrell

“Hermano,” is a beautiful and lesser-known Spanish guitar piece featured in the 2012 Will Ferrell comedy, Casa de mi Padre. It’s a fantastic fingerstyle piece that sounds complex but is surprisingly accessible for intermediate guitarists.

The original composition was performed by the world-class, California-based classical guitarist, Tom Farrell (no relation to Will, and spelled differently!). I’ve been friends with Tom on social media since 2012, and he told me he simply improvised the piece from charts created for him and the horn player—an incredible feat of musical talent.

These days, Tom is the co-owner of Sound Roads Music, a music lesson studio based in Santa Monica, California. Check out Tom’s impressive early demos for Guitar Salon here.

I discovered “Hermano” while exploring the film’s soundtrack and it has become one of my favorite guitar pieces to cover. It’s a fun, rewarding piece that’s perfect for anyone looking to step up their classical or “Spanish” guitar technique.

Although it sounds sophisticated, the song is very approachable! The only difficult section is a single tricky F chord at the 0:45 mark. The entire arrangement is less than 2 minutes long.

You might also like to play…
(these are also intermediate level Spanish Guitar songs. Both are fun to play, and two of my all time favorites.

Gustavo Santaolalla: Amor y Paz | fingerstyle guitar + TAB

Mark Knopfler: Altamira | fingerstyle guitar + TAB

How to play Hermano | fingerstyle guitar

The guitar tab for this piece is beautifully written across 2 pages. I recommend this arrangement for intermediate guitar players and up. Enjoy! The guitar tab is available below:

You’ll play the tab straight through, taking care to repeat the intro and outro sections within the repeat brackets. “Arp” means arpeggiate (more on that fingerstyle technique here) and “pinch” is self-explanatory. Additionally you’ll have to use your thumb to quickly fret a G bass note towards the end. You’ll see that indicated clearly in the guitar tab.

[guitar tab] **Tom Farrell: Hermano | fingerstyle guitar

This piece is played in standard tuning.