Nuno Bettencourt claims this song was written about the idea that the phrase “I love you” was becoming meaningless. I think it’s more likely that they decided to go soft on the groupies for a little while. However you slice the cake, it’s a great song both for learning guitar and impressing your romantic prospects. Get a pick in your hands and a rose in your teeth…
Oh, never mind about the pick, this is all done with the fingers. This song is an introduction to the “Empty Chuck.” That’s a fancy way of say that there’s a thumb slap that doesn’t come with any chucking/flicking techniques. It’s an easy variation of the basic pluck and chuck idea, so this is a perfect song to start the series out with. It moves at a pretty easy pace, which should give you some time to practice your thumb slaps and get used to integrating them into a song accompaniment.
For those of you who are a little farther along and revisiting this song, I should point out that this is a great example of a steady 8th note groove and you can integrate other 8th note groove patterns into this song. The patterns from the next song in the series ‘small bump’ actually work pretty well if you slow them down to fit this tune. I’ll explain how to do that in a technique lesson on synthesizing patterns with empty chucks. Until then, happy trails…