Funny story about this song. I played it in my busking act right near City Hall in Philadelphia. A guy had stopped to listen to me and was clearly entranced. He pulls a $10 bill out of his wallet and is palming it ready to drop it in my case. He asks with a smile “That’s great, did you write that?” In an immense stroke of honesty/stupidity, I replied “naw man, that’s by Jason Mraz. You should check him out.” The man stumbled in an awkward recoil and tried to inconspicuously shuffle the $10 back into his wallet while he pulled out a $1 and threw it in my case. We then proceeded to chat about the miracle that is the relationship between a singer-songwriter and their audience. It was a nice conversation, but it was such a perfect example to show that some people just appreciate good original writing; this song is unequivocally that.
Nevertheless, on to technical matters. I’m using this song to introduce the chuck strum. which is a combination of a thumb slap and a flick of the fingers over a chord. This technique allows you to strum chords while doing a thumb slap. Without it, you wouldn’t be able to strum chords on the back beat of a groove, and that would be a huge limitation. Believe me when I say that it’s a pretty essential technique to pluck and chuck guitar grooves.
This song is so perfect for this part of the series because it is so simple and so down tempo. Your hands have lots of time to adjust, there aren’t any huge technical demands; it’s a perfect teaching song. If you haven’t heard this song before, check out the live concert video at the top of this page. This concert inspired me to really take on the challenge of learning Jason’s music.