I Learned how to play the "Stranger Things" theme song on Guitar

In this challenge I learned a simple (but fast!) arpeggiated chord progression on the guitar. I learned a single part of the theme song from the popular Netflix show “Stranger Things”. The “Stranger Things” title theme has a dark and mysterious retro horror movie sound. It is inspired by 1980s synth movie music from the likes of John Carpenter (who made iconic music like the Halloween theme). This guitar version that I learned sounds quite different from the full title sequence song but it still captures the mysterious aura of it. Here is the Youtube video tab that I learned how to play the arpeggiated synth part of the song from:

I played the song on a nylon string guitar using the fingerstyle technique. Nylon string guitars are a type of acoustic guitar that have a gentle, mellow sound compared to steel string guitars which have a sharper and louder sound. Nylon string guitars are often found in classical guitar music, jazz music, and Latin music. Fingerstyle guitar is a technique that involves plucking the strings of a guitar directly with the fingers as opposed to using a guitar pick.

The song is made up of arpeggios, chords broken up into individual notes played individually in a rising or descending order. The song also makes use of guitar techniques called "hammer-ons", which are when notes are played by striking fingers of the fretting hand down on a fret to play notes. The song also makes use of a similar technique called "pull-offs", where you pull a finger off a fret, pulling on the string a little with that finger as you do so and letting the note ring.

You can translate most music onto the guitar fretboard. Classical and fingerstyle guitar can be like an orchestra in one instrument. This version plays the synth arpeggio part of the song, but I’m sure skilled masters could incorporate many separate parts of the song at once into their guitar version. There are some stunning videos of guitarists playing complex compositions of multiple instruments on a single guitar.

The crux of this challenge was getting down the fast picking pattern. Fingerstyle picking patterns are clunky when you are first learning them, but can become nearly automatic with practice. For this song you don’t have to change the shape of your fretting hand. It is very easy for even beginners to hold these frets and play this slowly. The fast arpeggio and the hammer ons and pull offs are a little advanced though. Getting the timing down perfectly in rhythm is something I still need to work on. Playing the notes at even volumes and with even note timing like a computerized synth is difficult also, especially with the hammer-ons and pull-offs. The root bass note also changes strings at times and the song ends on a newly introduced full chord, which were also points of friction in the learning process. It is also challenging to start a song playing a full speed arpeggio too. Here is me playing the song on guitar:

The song is played at a blistering 180 beats per minute according to the video tab! When learning a song you should start slowly. You should really listen and feel the notes at that slow pace and get it locked down. Then you can speed up. Many musicians recommend using a metronome to be precise and stay on beat. I tried using one for this challenge but I was confused on how it was supposed to help me stay on the beat of this song. I’ll try again in the future to learn how to use it for future challenges to improve my sense of rhythm.

This song is one of those things that sounds way more difficult and more impressive than it actually is. Arpeggios can make a normal chord feel more dazzlingly complex by separating all of the notes and playing them fast. A beginner like me can learn to play this slowly and then get faster and faster with practice.

I enjoyed learning this short little guitar interpretation of the “Stranger Things” theme. It was a fun exercise to work on picking out arpeggios and playing hammer-ons and pull-offs. It is challenging to get the timing down precisely on this song with such a blisteringly fast pace. This was a good first challenge on the guitar because there wasn’t much at all to memorize, so it was mainly a matter of grinding away at getting faster and faster at playing the song. I am looking forward to learning more songs on the guitar in the future!