I watch the One Bite Pizza reviews with Dave Portnoy often. I had the theme music stuck in my head one day and had to work out a simple arrangement. The theme we hear is 16 bars out of a 3 minute piece of music recorded by Al Caiola. It’s from his Mazurka Medley. The name of the piece is called “Tra Veglia e Somio” – “Between Deam and Sleep” in English.

I worked this out as a finger style arrangement in the recorded key of G minor. A minor would certainly be easier but I have a thing for original keys. I also use a drop D tuning. That makes some moves a little easier and ya have to love that big fat low D. Below there is a link for the finger style arrangement as well as a straight ahead lead sheet with separate chords and melody.

I already posted a simple arrangement of the piano arrangement to “The Stranger” by Billy Joel. This is the part where the band enters arranged for solo finger style guitar. I have two arrangements here. One is the intro which holds out the chord while playing the melody, riff, phrase, or whatever you like to call it. The other is that same theme but used as a short interlude between verses. This one keeps a rhythm with your thumb while playing the melody line. I’ve labeled this the “interlude”.

There are two chords used here – Em and C7. The melody over the Em is harmonized in 4th’s. The melody over the C7 uses the notes in the chord shape to create harmony. Click below for PDF’s and/or YouTube video.

This is another lesson on using pedal steel type string bends to make chords. This one uses strings 3, 4, and 5. The progression used here is nice on it’s own but really gets prettied up when you alter the existing notes with the string bending. Though the voicings work great together they can also be used on their own, of course. There are no open strings needed here so you can move any of these voicings all over the fret board. Click the link below for the PDF with the chord windows and diagrams. Check out the video for the lesson.

This is the piano outro from the original Derek and the Dominoes version of “Layla” arranged for solo guitar. There is a downloadable PDF file and video tutorial. This can be played with a pick or finger style. It just so happens that the melody can be manipulated out of the “mostly” open chords quite easily. The notation/tab has time marks and rehearsal marks to help identify the different sections. This is how I notated it but if you can hear the melody in your head it’s fairly easy to work out your own thing.

There are three 36 bar sections with the first two sections repeating chordwise. You can see how that lays out by clicking this link – https://johnnylagreca.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/LAYLA_chord_update.pdf

A lot of the melody is pretty much the same, however there are 3 different melodies over the repeating C C/E and F chord section. So you can follow the notation exactly or just use it as a rough guide to play it your own way. Some notes are in parenthesis. These are the notes that would be included if you are strumming it out as opposed to playing it finger style. Click below for the notation/tab.

This is a style of string bending mostly related to traditional country style guitar but it certainly does not have to be limited to that. These can be used to create harmony and chords when soloing or accompanying others. To make chords with this technique you bend notes to a desired pitch precisely while holding the others dead still.

The video uses a simple chord progression to demonstrate this.

Click below for the PDF chart with diagrams-

This is another 12 bar/ 1 – 4 – 5 basic blues solo acoustic guitar piece. This time the bass moves through the chord changes while the chording is sparse and basic. The bass outlines the chords using scale and chromatic notes to connect the chord changes. The basic chords and chord fragments are only played on the second half of beat one. There is nothing new or innovative here – just basic concepts and moves that are tried and true.

This might be too simple for some and challenging to others. This is designed for the guitarist with basic skills. Click on the link below for the PDF chart and take a look at the video to hear how it sounds.