Notice
The basics of Kottke's fingerpicking pattern is used here (also in his song Watermelon), so get to know Kottke's fingerpicking pattern. It's an alternating bass picking pattern that fires out notes like a machinegun. Once you practice the pattern long enough it becomes natural, and easy to play up to speed. He uses this fingerpicking pattern in one form or another in myriads of his songs. His style is also evident here, as common chord forms are fingerpicked.
Your fingers are always running in this song, and your thumb is always jumping, so they get some good exercise (har har har...). Anyways, there are some very minor mistakes and variations that Kottke makes throughout the song. But since the song is played so fast, you'll hardly notice them.
For example, the notes indicated by the asterisk (*) means that the open B string (0 of the B string) is actually being played. This could give you extra time to change chord fingerings. The note indicated by (^) means that the 2nd time around the 5th fret B string is played instead of the 5th fret E string. But I actually like to play it with the notes being fretted, because it sounds better...
Technically, you could play this whole song using only 2 fingers and your thumb. However, you could split the work up by using your ring finger to play some of the notes on the higher strings to make it a bit easier. Thus the fingerings should be treated only as guidelines. Feel free to play the notes anyway you want.
Note:
p = thumb
i = index finger
m = middle inger
a = ring finger
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