Transcribing Notes From John Neil (Head Transcriber)
Drive – Incubus – Song Breakdown
Melody
A nice Incubus song that’s more of the style of melodic pop. It’s about fear and being driven by it, and the vocal range is A2 to G4.
Download the Melody Music Here
Keyboard
The only keyboard I really hear in this recording is a cello sound (or something similar to that) beginning at the 2nd pre-chorus, then in the choruses and outro after that. It’s pretty far off in the distance, so I wrote out what it sounds like to me. For the rest of the song, I have the keys playing the basic guitar riff on the electric piano.
Download the Keyboard Sheet Music Here
Lead Guitar
I have the lead guitar doing the doubling of the acoustic rhythm guitar, the high 4th part in the choruses, and the slide solo. All but the slide solo are done with acoustic in the recording, but for the sake of the solo, I have them on electric. It could also all be done with acoustic, and tremolo added to that for the solo (in some live recordings, the solo is just whistled).
Download the Lead Guitar Tab Here
Rhythm Guitar
This is the main acoustic part. I patterned it after their live performances — in the studio recording I hear the note E in the Cmaj7 chord (like in measure 2 – the 2nd 8th note of beat 1 and the 1st 2 16th notes of beat 3). In the live performances, there is no lower E note in the voicing.
Download the Rhythm Guitar Tab Here
Strum Guitar
Since the acoustic guitars in this song are more intricate than a simple strum, I added a strum part that’s more basic.
Download the Strum Tab Here
Bass
A pretty busy bass part that’s played with the fingers. Lots of repeated 16th notes and even some 16th note triplets thrown in.
Download the Bass Tab Here
Drums
The drums consist of a sample loop (through pretty much the entire song), with some actual drumming on top of that, and a DJ scratching a record which creates some percussion effects. I concentrated mostly on the loop and added drumming. Starting at the first pre-chorus, the added drums play a snare on the beat (while the loop is a cross-stick for the entire song), but the cross-stick is more prominent, so I kept with that until the later choruses and solo section, where the beat is emphasized to the point where I thought snare was warranted.
Download the Drum Music Here
Download the Lead Sheet Here
