DESCRIPTION:
"Violão"
Music by Sueli Costa
Words by Paulo Cesar Pinheiro

This is a near exact transcription of just the guitar part as played (and most likely arranged) by the great guitarist Hélio Delmiro on Fátima Guedes' 1994 album "Pra Bom Entendedor...". (Really beautiful, amazing album. One of my favorites. Still available on Amazon and Itunes).

I worked on a version adding as much of the melody into the guitar part as i could but wanted to get this down and filmed so I wouldn't have to keep re-learning it from scratch without the visual aid.

The song is a love song to the guitar itself. (In Brazilian Portuguese, "violão" is the name of the nylon string, classical guitar. The word "guitarra" is more reserved for the steel string and electric varieties)

The lyric (see below) is by the Brazilian poet Paulo Cesar Pinheiro. My free translation follows.

Um dia eu vi numa estrada
Um arvoredo caído
Não era um tronco qualquer.
Era madeira de pinho
E um artesão esculpia
O corpo de uma mulher

Depois eu vi
Pela noite
O artesão nos caminhos
Colhendo raios de lua
Fazia cordas de prata
Que, se esticadas, vibravam
O corpo da mulher nua

E o artesão, finalmente,
Nesta mulher de madeira,
Botou o seu coração
E lhe apertou contra o peito
E deu-lhe nome bonito
E assim nasceu o violão.

One day in the street I saw a fallen tree
There was no trunk to be seen.
It was pine wood
And with it an artesan was sculpting
The body of a woman

Later I saw
That night
The artesan going about his way
Collecting the moon's rays
With them he made silver strings
That, once attached, vibrated
The nude body of the woman

And, finally
Into this woman of wood
The artesan poured out his whole heart
And held her against his breast
And gave her a beautiful name
And thus was born the "Violão".

Learned by ear. I have nothing written down.
Taylor NS54-ce, hybrid classical
Standard tuning
D'addario Pro Arte normal tension nylon strings