We Are All Enlisted

Only four chords to this song, and they’re all super easy!  Not only that, but fully half of the twenty-four measures are repeats.  You only have to learn these measures, and you’ve got the whole song:  [1], [2], [3], [4], [7], [9], [10], [11], [12], [15], and [16].  I’m not counting [8], which consists entirely of a single, strummed C chord.  The only place where the repetition is not exact is in the last line, where the notes are picked separately, without hammer-ons or slides.

There are no hard chords or difficult transitions, but the tempo is FAST, so I added a change of pace in the middle.  It’s slower than the rest of the song, but still not exactly SLOW. Remember, the metronome numbers are for quarter-notes, not eighth-notes, and the song is arranged in 8/8 time, so each beat of the metronome counts for TWO “counting numbers,” not one.  If you want to count each counting number separately, double the metronome speed.

Nearly all the G7 chords in the tab are really Gs, but there’s no need to kill your hand making fast chord changes. The #1 string is not played in any of these G chords, so the difference is academic.  It’s easier to hit the melody notes from a G7 hand position, so I’ve called them all G7.  You can play G the “right” way if you like, but your hand will get mighty tired.

In measures [7] and [23], do the hammer-on with the ring finger, leaving the middle finger free to do the slide which follows. The last note of the measure is an open e-string, giving you time to position your hand for the following C chord strum.

Some chords are pinched, some are strummed, and some are played as arpeggios. If you are using finger-picks, be sure to play the arpeggios with the fingers, leaving the thumb and thumb pick free to strum the next chord.  If you try to strum the arpeggios, you may have difficulty getting the thumb back into strumming position in time. You will either have a choppy rhythm, or you may hit the strings with the thumb pick on the way up.

A couple of tips:
-- the pull-offs on the third string are easier to do quickly as push-offs. Instead of pulling the string away from you to pluck it with the middle finger of the left hand, push it toward you to pluck it. This may seem a bit unnatural at first, but it’s not hard to do.
-- in measures [7] and [23], fret the A note on the third string, 2nd space, by briefly flattening the  middle finger across the string, instead of moving it from the fifth string. It’s a bit faster, where speed really counts.

It’s not actually necessary, but I like to end the song with a C/G chord, which is just a normal C with the G note added with the little finger on the #6 string. It gives a fuller sound than a normal C chord, but contains all the same notes. If you’re following the tab, your finger will already be there, but if you have trouble hitting it in tempo, just play a normal C, as tabbed.

In this song, tempo is king. It sounds terrific when played at speed, and it’s not hard to do. With a little practice, you can sound like a fretboard wizard.