Graham/Lovland, "You Raise Me Up"

Transcription and Fingering: Renato Bellucci

You Raise Me Up is a wonderful song I only heard recently performed in teh great movie "The Lion King". It has also been covered beautifully by the British group Westlife. Josh Groban also makes a great rendition of the work. The piece was written by Brendan Graham and Rolf Lovland.

This is the classical guitar transcription I offer to my dear students. I see the piece is perfect to be played either solo or to accompany a singer at a wedding or make it part of a mix of several great melodies to be used as an encore to a recital or to be a part of the recital itself.

In all these years and having payed publicly so many times I have come to realize that it is much more gratifying for both the audience and the artist to play well known easily digestible pieces rather than embark on endless tour de force that even in the best scenario will always generate mixed feelings. Most concert audiences can only apply attention and concentration for seconds rather than minutes. Either way, the melody is very beautiful and a delight to play.

The main challenge of the work is to cope with the big stretch between fingers 1 and 4. Detuning the 6th string to D would partially take care of these but I find that the work shines best with the guitar at its standard tuning and using the playing apparatus intelligently will allow you to master these stretches in no time. Always refer to the links recommended in the Technique Highlight section for each piece (orange and yellow table to the side of this article)