There are two kinds of guitarists: the ones who claim they'd never play the Titanic theme, and the ones who've already worked out the tin-whistle melody in bed with the lights off. I'm the second kind, and if you're reading this, so are you. No shame — this melody has been emotionally waterboarding humanity since 1997.
So here's My Heart Will Go On as a solo guitar MelodyChords arrangement (number 5 in the series): the famous melody and its chords stacked onto a single instrument, no orchestra, no flute, no Celine, and — crucially — no iceberg. Just you, six strings, and 74 seconds of feelings.
How a MelodyChords arrangement actually works
The whole trick is that the melody always lives on top. You voice each chord so its highest note is the exact note Celine would be belting, then you fill the harmony underneath with your thumb and lower fingers. Because the melody sits on the top strings, it cuts through even when a full chord rings below it — your ear naturally hears the top note as "the tune" and everything else as accompaniment. That's the same principle behind any chord-melody piece.
The concrete takeaway: don't grab a chord and then hunt for the melody note inside it. Do the reverse. Find the melody note first, decide which string it needs to be on, and then build the chord voicing down from there. Let long melody notes ring while you quietly change the harmony beneath them — that sustained top note carrying over a moving chord is exactly what makes this theme sound so achingly full on one guitar.
Is it a bit dramatic to play a shipwreck ballad alone in your living room? Absolutely. But your heart will, in fact, go on — and if you want the PDF and Guitar Pro files so your fretting hand can join it, they're waiting over on my Patreon.