The Godfather, Guitar Lesson

The Godfather Theme is perhaps the best known movie piece of all times. I made a guitar transcription for you to play solo on guitar. You will master how to carry the main melody on the guitar as well as the classical  arpeggio.Throughout the 5 videos, I teach using English, Spanish & Italian. You can play the piece on Classical, Acoustic and/or Electric Guitar indistinctly.

Nino Rota, was born in Milan in 1911 and died in Rome in 1979. In 1919 he began studying the piano with his mother, and at the age of eight he started to compose. He entered the Milan Conservatory in 1923. Later, in Rome, he received a diploma in composition at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in 1930.

In 1937 joined the Bari Conservatory as a teacher of harmony and composition. There, Rota worked closely with my first guitar teacher, Maestro Vincenzo Calsolaro who also worked at the Bari music Conservatory. Calsolaro made the guitar transcription for this piece in 1973 and presented it to me when I was 12.

Rota owed his international renown largely to his scores for the cinema, many of them composed for the films of Federico Fellini.

The Godfather, is inspired in Southern Italy singing style: Lyrical. Stretch the tempo and allow for the melody to sing. Te introduction sets the tonality of the work. Play the chords at the beginning of each measure in an arpeggiated fashion. You can read more on arpeggiated chords HERE. This means that the chord will sound both as a chord and an arpeggio. You can see how it is done looking at the video to the right closely or by following the link to the Technique pages.

Whenever possible, I like to use the same right hand finger for a given melodic line. Such is the case with this introduction... notice how I repeat the a finger on the first string.

With slow, Romantic pieces, I try to go by this rule: Use finger a on the first string, the m on the second, the i on the third and the thumb on the bass strings. The main reason is that you get a more even sound and keep things in the right hand as simple as possible. 90% of the playing mistakes are generated in the right hand.