Al Di Meola – Guitar

I have two things that I like transcribing, bass and solo acoustic guitar. I try the guitar stuff for the same reason as I do the bass; I want to have material I can use to aid my practising that is more interesting than ‘Campdown Racing’ or cheesy, uninspiring classical guitar. I have loved Al Di Meola’s acoustic guitar work since I was a teenager and have pretty much every one of the books that have been published of his compositions and solos but there is a death of copies of his solo guitar performances so I thought I would try a few of my own. This is the tune ‘Esmeralda’ from the 2015 album ‘Elysium’. It is not technically a solo guitar piece but a duo with percussion and there is also some bass doubling the guitar at one point but, fundamentally, the tunes stands up as solo guitar piece if you haven’t got the other textures.

I post these things so there are out there and available to people. It seems a waste to do the work and then leave it gathering dust on a shelf in a shed in Felixstowe. It is worth noting that there have been many Di Meola charts that I have started but had to abandon halfway through as they have got too difficult for me to write down.