Transcribing Notes From John Neil (Head Transcriber)
Free Fallin’ – Tom Petty – Song Breakdown
Melody
A great melody with the range of C3 to A4 (not counting low pickup notes and the “oh!”s at the end, which make it F2 to C5).
Download the Melody Sheet Music Here
Keyboard
The Keyboards are made up of mainly a synth pad, then at the end more stuff is added. I put what I could, plus some backing vocals, into 1 part. The synth pad does a great job of melding the guitars together.
Download the Keyboard Sheet Music Here
Lead Guitar
The lead guitar is a clean electric guitar, most likely a 12-string, that does mainly triad strums throughout the song. It also plays the solo (where it’s definitely a 12-string).
Download the Lead Guitar Tab Here
Rhythm Guitar
This and the strum guitar/ukulele are the 2 more distinct strums – this being the one on the left channel, strum/ukulele on the right. I say distinct because there may be many more tracks of acoustic guitar strumming mixed in there, of which I could have put into these parts as well. The key thing is to accent the hook notes (specified by the accents in the intro, and instruction to “continue accents”.
Download the Rhythm Guitar Tab Here
Strum/Ukulele Guitar
I did the Strum and Ukulele as (capo 3) D – – D(sus4) – – – – – D – A… in the verses (as opposed to going to the G as the bass does), because that sounds more like the song when played as a solo piece. Also, those voicings match more what the 2nd guitar strum is doing. These variations are also reflected in the lead sheet. I also had it play during the breakdown to keep it all going.
Download the Strum Tab Here
Download the Ukulele Tab Here
Bass Guitar
A nice melodic bass part played by Jeff Lynne of ELO fame (and co-writer of the song). It sounds like it’s played with fingers.
Download the Bass Tab Here
Drums
A pretty basic drum part, with those 16th note snares in verse 3 to keep things fresh. It’s very tight, in fact I thought it was a drum machine, until I saw Phil Jones credited as the drummer.
Download the Drum Music Here
Download the Lead Sheet Here
