The Music of the Night

My Dad was a massive fan of the arts — specifically music and poetry. As an early adolescent (in the late 80’s) my family belonged to the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. I was fortunate to see every Broadway show you can imagine; Cats, Les Misérables, and The Phantom of the Opera.

The Phantom and Les Misérables were my favorites. If you haven’t seen it — Jean Valjean (the protagonist of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables) was amazingly portrayed by Hugh Jackman in the most recent film rendition.

The Music of the Night is the signature song from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s, The Phantom of the Opera. It’s the one that makes women swoon — and men wish they were the one portraying the ‘stage phantom’.  It’s a timeless song.

I actually performed this piece back in 2018 — but I’ve redone it as a tighter arrangement. This time, I’ve stayed in the lower register of the guitar too. The piece has a deeper tone, and it imbues the tender masculinity of The Phantom character. It’s fairly easy to play for intermediate guitarists, and the shorter length makes it even more so.

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How to play The Music of the Night | fingerstyle guitar

The guitar tab for this piece is beautifully written across only two pages. I qualify this as easy to play and beginner guitar players can definitely give it a shot. Enjoy, the guitar tab is available below:

My order of play in accordance with the guitar tab looks like this:

Verse, Verse End (A, A6)

Verse, Pre Chorus, Chorus

Verse, End 1 (Page #2)

Verse, End 1, End 2

The Music of the Night | fingerstyle guitar

For this piece, I’ve tuned my guitar one whole step down. From low to high: D G C F A D

The original is played one 1/2 step down. Or, you can just as easily play this arrangement in standard tuning as the melody is so strong and identifiable.