Learning debrief: “On the nature of daylight” by Max Richter on the guitar
On the difficulty of distinguishing similar patterns in music
The first time I heard the song “On the nature of daylight” by Max Richter was in the movie Arrival. The movie is just as much a melancholy work of art as the song. Since then, I've listened to the song hundreds of times. I like Richter's idea that music should create “a space to think”. The song invites a certain kind of slowness and allows me to work creatively, for example to write.
I found a beautiful fingerstyle version of the song on YouTube, transcribed by Matthew McAllister. It's only three sheets of music, but every bar looks kind of similar, which makes it hard to remember. Technically, though, it is an easy song.
It took me almost seven hours to memorize the song. I started learning on June 9 and managed to play the song by heart for the first time on July 20. Here is the final version:
It took me a total of 20 sessions to practise the song. Most sessions lasted about twenty minutes. The shortest was five, the longest 39 minutes:
This is basically a single working day. Nine hours of concentrated work. Thanks to this effort, I am now able to play the song dozens or hundreds of hours in my life, which makes me quite satisfied. Most of the time I'll probably play the song alone, it's really not a song you play with a few friends and a few beers. But that's fine with me.