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I played several wedding ceremonies this summer. One such opportunity involved arranging eight different pieces for the guitar that had previously never been arranged. The couple had great taste in music (a big plus for me) and one of the songs I arranged was Perfect Day by Lou Reed. This song jumped onto my radar in the film “Trainspotting” and had a nice resurgence a couple years ago on a playstation add. What a poignant choice it is for a wedding! I’m actually amazed that more people don’t consider it for this purpose. For the past several years I’ve taught lessons on Google Hangouts to my buddy Derek in Alaska. He started as a student with me when he was quite young (in person) and has really bloomed into a great teenage guitarist. When we had a chance to meet up this summer he performed my wedding arrangement of Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” with mics and cameras rolling. Derek has a great future as a lifelong guitar player and really did a nice job bringing out all the different parts of “Perfect Day”. I feel that one of the greatest things about the guitar is it’s ability to take on…

Heyo! Here is a fun little something I’ve been cooking up. I love Radiohead, and have a fond relationship to this song in particular. Watch a minute and try to find all three of me, and please feel free (and compelled) to pass this along! Music Nerds, I’ve always found this tune so warm that I never noticed some of the outstanding and perplexing musical shifts that take place within the song. The main rhythm alternates 4&6 and there are occurrences of 5&7 on the book ends of the “LEMON”. Really Cool. If you like this and are interested in getting my guitar arrangement, like the main Guitarborist​ page, subscribe to my youtube, then tap the contact link, and hit me up. Thanks!

This is Jeremy, age 11, playing a piece from blind Irish harpist Turlough O’Carolan. This was Jeremy’s first time playing in front of a microphone and camera and I think he did a great job with a pretty difficult arrangement! Turlough O’Carolan was one of the most famous musicians of the 1600’s and traveled Europe extensively while only accepting payment in coin. Lots of his music has been adapted for guitar, probably because it sounds great! Please give this post a boost in any way you can. Thanks as always for your support!

Here is a video played on the tracks featuring students Maia, Alex and me playing Echoing Gilewitz by Leo Kottke. In playing this sweet lullaby-esque piece the players pass each measure clockwise to their fellow musicians. IE, everyone gets to play every third part of the music. Leo Kottke was one of the first fingerstyle guitar players I ever heard play guitar. I can remember the sense of wonderment that I felt trying to figure out how he could play so many notes at the same time. It gives me great pleasure as a teacher to be able to introduce the player (Kottke), and his ideas to a younger generation at such a young age. If you listen closely you can hear the tone of the individual guitars change. This piece is in 6/8 time so you can basically count to 6 and listen for changes as the song progresses. Kottke modeled this arrangement after a long form created by Minnesota guitarist Richard Gilewitz.

Mulberry Street is one of the catchiest instrumental tunes that most people have never heard. I first discovered this piece, and it’s composer Dylan Ryche by watching video of him perform at the Canadian Guitar Festival Competition (he won). He sells transcriptions for all of his compositions at www.dylanryche.com/ The “locations” shown in the video are from a collection of time lapses myself and my “video assistant (boss)” @baylorswift17 have been assembling. Please share any cool time-lapses (or drone footage) you’ve shot with me for consideration in future videos. This single take video is a “warts and all” sort of affair. There’s definitely a few mess ups (this is a tough piece to play!). I wanted it to have a live sort of feel. I’m a huge fan of how technically demanding “Mulberry Street” is, while still feeling airy and unforced in the hands of the right person (hopefully me(sometimes)). I hope it’s appreciated by you listeners as much as I enjoyed it when I heard it the first time. Please like, share, comment, and subscribe to this blog, and my youtube channel here. There’s a lot of noise in the world, with your assistance I can be a LITTLE…