How to Play Too Sweet by Hozier
Too Sweet by Irish artist Hozier is a 2024 global hit song. It features electric guitar throughout and is an excellent chart for intermediate players. Other popular songs by Hozier include his huge 2014 hit Take Me To Church, and the blues flavoured 2015 hit Work Song.
Tuning: some online sources suggest the guitar on the recording is tuned down a whole-tone. This might be so but isn’t really clear from the recorded performance. Tuning down a whole tone is not very practical on most instruments and, thankfully is not really necessary. The easiest way to emulate the recording is to tune the 6th string down a whole tone to a low D. This is often referred to as ‘drop D’ tuning. The lowest notes we need are the low Eb and D ; these can only be played by tuning the 6th string down to D.
Power chords: the power chords in the middle section that use the 6th & 5th strings can be played by one finger if you like, but you may find two fingers tidier. Try them both ways to see which is more comfortable. There are also some standard power chords on the 5th & 4th strings; form these with the index and ring fingers.
Timing: Too Sweet provides a great timing study. There are regular rests in the note pattern. Notice these are a stop on the guitar; meaning that the sound stops on the rests. This articulation is an important aspect of the guitar part. Of particular importance is that the riff starts on the upbeat after the 1st beat ; meaning do not play on the 1. Count the first bar as “1 and 2 3 4 and 1 2 3 and 4 and” - the first note is played on the ‘and’ after the 1st beat.
Picking: Definitely a pick song! The tone you hear on the electric guitar on the recording is produced by a strong ‘flat pick’ striking down across the heavy strings. Finger-style playing does not produce the same clarity and speed of attack. A professional player would use some upstrokes as well but you will create a strong, clear sound playing all downstrokes.
Relevant pages in Modern Guitar Chord Styles 2 : To learn more about power chords and rock rhythms look at pages 8 - 9 and 16 - 17. To learn about the essential theory of bar-chords and how they move along the fretboard look at pages 4 - 6 for major chords, and pages 14 - 15 for minor bar-chords.