"Chi Mai", Classical Guitar Solo, Ennio Morricone

Transcription and Fingering: Renato Bellucci

I will teach you how to play my Guitar transcription of Ennio Morricone's "Chi Mai.

Ennio Morricone was a classmate and lifelong friend of legendary film director Sergio Leone. The Leone, Morricone Clint Eastwood trio marked movie legend in the 1970s.
Actor Jean-Paul Belmondo almost single-handedly made it cool to be French when he starred in The professional. Another effortlessly smoldering performance as spy Joss Baumont. An exhilarating score from the legendary Ennio Morricone adds to the suspense in this tight story of political double-crossing.
I transcribed many Morricone masterpieces for guitar because they fit the guitar wonderfully (The Mission, Once upon a time in America, etc.). Chi Mai is one of my favorites. I made the world premiere of this work in 1988. Ennio Morricone belongs with the greatest composers of all time. His musical signature can be recognized instantly and there is not one of his Movie soundtracks that I do not feel like transcribing for guitar. Chi Mai was my first Ennio Morricone transcription.

Chi Mai requires you to move your left hand gently to produce a slow vibrato. Vibrato on the guitar is a slight, rapid or slow depending on the aural effect you want to achieve, and regular fluctuation in the pitch of a note. It is produced by a shaking movement of the hand and forearm while the finger(s) is stopping the strings and fret where the note is meant to be vibrato.

One of the main challenges in Chi Mai is to administer and recuperate your left hand energies as much and as many times as possible. You recover energies through micro & macro relaxations. These are achieved when moving from one position to the next or between chords by relaxing the tension in the fingers as much as possible through a controlled opening of the fist like shape that your left hand and fingers are into when coming from a previous chord or arpeggio.

As soon as you play the F# at the very end of the staff, relax the left hand fingers completely, lift the fingers off the fingerboard in a perpendicular manner to avoid string squeaks and then move swiftly to the new position on the fingerboard.

I will teach you all the Guitar technique necessary to play Chi Mai.