Finger Picking Pt. II

10 days since I set myself the goal of learning the acoustic version of 'Sex' The 1975 and by practicing at least 30 minutes on the piece everyday, I have finally managed to cover the song (those days of playing it on my imaginary air guitar are over)!

The first step was to find a tab to use which I did very easily. Google is so handy as anything you want, you type it in and voila, your wish has been granted.
The actual song is made up of only 4 chords: C, F, G and Am7 (with the capo on fret 5/6, whatever floats your boat). It is basically the way in which each chord is played that recreates the sound in the video I posted before.
The trick is (without getting too much into detail), hitting the root note (for C it's the 5th string, G is 6th and F/Am7 is the 4th), then plucking the string below that. After that, it's a simple down strum then finally hitting the 1st/2nd string as you strum upwards. The C chord is the special chord as it's made up of 2nd string, 1st fret/ 4th string, second fret/ 5th string 3rd fret. If you listen closely enough, you should hear a slight hammer on and pull off  which means putting a finger on a fret while the string is vibrating and then taking it off respectively. To create this sound, all that I did was do the whole picking/strumming pattern once, then place my little finger on the 4th string, 3rd fret and do the pattern again. Take if off and repeat said pattern and finally remove my middle finger from the 2nd fret on the same string and repeat the pattern again! (It sounds complicated and it is difficult to explain without showing it visually, but it's not that difficult at all).


So there you have it! I hope you have enjoyed my goal song which was quite fun to play and sing at the same time as I love the song so much! I think if I was to improve upon it, it would definitely be the use of dynamics. Picking louder than the strumming would create a nice balance between the two styles of playing as it would, (in my head anyway) create a sense of tranquility almost...
(Also, recording it not from my laptop and with actual recording equipment would do wonders for it but alas, I'm but a poor student)

Next challenge with finger picking? 'Wake Me Up When September Ends' by Green Day. An amazing song which is majorly based off of finger picking (the first few verses and the bridge in the middle) as well as power chords (another guitar music term which means the combination of two tones using the root and its fifth) which are ever present in the rock genre (and also another thing I need to get better at).
Practice, practice, practice!