May; I have written this little melodic tune to describe the month of May. In the second and third verse, I improvise a melodic line over the first guitar part.

La Forza del Destino is from the overture of the Guiseppe Verdi (1813-1901) Opera with the same title. The British guitarist Bridget Mermikides has arranged the music for guitar, and made it into a beautiful pice which in a good way captures the essence of the music originally written for the symphony orchestra.

This is my song Blue Third, a piece in clawhammer style, humbly trying to emulate the playing of great guitarists like Tommy Emmanuel, Chet Atkins, Marcel Dadi, Stefan Grossman, Buster B. Jones, Rory Gallagher and Sungha Jung to mention just a few.

Music/tab found in The Electric Guitar Book (Den elektriske gitarboka).

Wind is one of my original tunes; a quiet little song in 6/8. Opening with natural harmonics, it flows away in a light, expressive and romantic mood, maybe a little like the barcarole; an Italian folksong sung by the Venetian gondoliers. When playing I try to let the melody ring out a little bit more than the other voices.

Tab/music not published.

Open Strings is an original named after the way the accompanying guitar is playing: The first and the second strings are ringing out with open strings all throug the piece. In addition the chords move upwards on the guitar neck, creating many interesting chords, some with a greater disssonans than the others – but they are all open! The lead guitar improvises over these chords, trying to create fine musical lines and a dynamic, expressive mood.

Tab/music in My Guitar Book (Gitarboka mi!).

This is a prelude in two parts. In the first part the melody is in the bass register, so I try to play with a singing, strong bass line. In this first part we might hear inspiration from Heitor Villa-Lobos’ (1887-1959) first prelude. In the second part the melody is in the treble register, and many position changes makes this part a little harder to play.

The Delta Blues is an early blues style coming from the Mississippi Delta, and is played using acoustic instruments. Mississippi is an original I have recorded where I play acoustic guitar, slide guitar and harmonica. The blues is a spontaneus and improvising music style with a lot of repeating elements (call and response) and blue notes in a twelve bar blues form.

Tab/music: The Electric Guitar Book (Den elektriske gitarboka).

Falling Leaves is a ballad for two acoustic guitars, and I have used my Taylor 414-CE for the job. The accompanying guitar does clawhammer patterns trying to create a meditative mood to play the theme and improvisations over. The lead guitar plays a melodic theme and moves further into a rather melodic improvisation, where the intention is to create longer musical lines and a quiet atmosphere.

Tab/music not published.

May is from the suite ‘Twelve Months’ consisting of one piece for each month of the year. Here I am trying to let the melody on the first string sound stronger than the other notes.

There is olso a duo version of this song.

Tab/music not published.