American Prometheus

I’ve been obsessing over the Ludwig Göransson’s Oppenheimer soundtrack since the film’s release. Just brilliant. Like Hans Zimmer at his peak in the 2010’s. This is a complex story about a complex individual — and Christopher Nolan leans heavily on the music to thread the story.

If you haven’t seen Oppenheimer, I would actually encourage spoilers here. Christopher Nolan requested that audience go into the movie blind, and be “surprised” by the story. That’s what I did, and it was A LOT to take in. I would have enjoyed myself even more had I known the (American Prometheus story) and just luxuriated in the multiple Oscar worthy performances. It’s the best acted movie since The Godfather I & II.

[The Oppenheimer movie is based entirely on the book ‘American Prometheus’ by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. The exhaustive biography was written over a period of twenty-five years.]

There’s a musical motif that stood out to me throughout the soundtrack. I had to wait until I saw Oppenheimer to see how prominent it was in the actual film. The motif is best exemplified in the piece, American Prometheus. I absolutely love it. It vibes the entire film.

This is my fingerstyle arrangement of that music. It’s not an exact copy — more of a variation. I just took the best bits and highlighted them.

You might also like to play…

Oppenheimer | fingerstyle guitar + TAB
(closing ‘end credits’ theme)

The Godfather (Love Theme) | fingerstyle guitar + TAB

Hans Zimmer: Time | fingerstyle guitar + TAB

How to play American Prometheus | fingerstyle guitar

The guitar tab for this piece is beautifully written across 2 pages. It’s very easy to play, and I recommend this arrangement for beginner guitar players and up.

Enjoy, the guitar tab is available below:

My song structure looks like this in accordance with the guitar tab:

Verse, Chorus 1

Verse Chorus 2

**Oppenheimer: American Prometheus | fingerstyle guitar

My tuning for this piece is fairly low at 1, 1/2 steps down. It looks like this from low to high:  Db Gb B E Ab Db.

You do not have to tune that low. The song also sounds great in standard tuning.