Transcribing Notes From John Neil (Head Transcriber)
Dani California – Red Hot Chili Peppers – Song Breakdown
Melody
A more melodic Anthony Kiedis vocal part with the vocal range of G5-B6. The higher notes are actually John Frusciante in the bridge.
Download the Melody Sheet Music Here
Keyboard
There are a few keyboard parts in this song … a Mellotron string build up before the first 2 choruses (3rd too, but I opted to cover a sped up guitar part there instead), and a high string (probably Mellotron) midway through the bridge. Then in the re-intro, it does the distorted lead guitar line (the lead guitar covers the higher note only with a unison bend), and in bars 87-91, it does a distorted guitar part the 2 guitars can’t cover. The rest is stuff I made up, covering the groove with an electric piano sound.
Download the Keyboard Sheet Music Here
Rhythm/Lead Guitar
Both guitars have lots of “skank” playing, as John Frusciante seems to do a lot. This means that muted surrounding strings are often picked along with the notes that are played, to give it a more rhythmic feel. It’s mostly on the quarter note beats, but between as well. I put a “skank with discretion” note, as it is a feel thing, and picking out which notes (and strings) he does this with would be pretty messy (and pretty much impossible to know which muted strings he plays).
I also estimated which strings are struck in mute picks/strums. If it sounds like just 1 or a couple, I did that, if it sounds like more, I did that.
In verse 1 and 2, there are the basic rhythm bars (the first 2), then fancy bars with what sounds like auto-wah (which it isn’t, I’ll get into that in a sec). According to Frusciante, this is 1 guitar track divided into a normal signal and “auto-wah.” It actually sounds like 2 parts, one normal signal (left) and one that’s normal (center) and “auto-wah” of the center one (right). So I did this as 2 parts. It could also be that the center one is actually the left one through a gate so parts of the more subtle things (muted strums etc) and lower volume notes are gated out. So it could be all 1 track, but it comes out differently in the center part, so I made it 2 (plus it gives the other guitar player something to do).
For the “auto-wah,” and also what I call “fast phaser”, Frusciante put the guitar track through his modular synth to create the effects. Auto-wah is the signal going through an envelope generator with lots of resonance and slow attack to get the “wah” effect, but it’s more concentrated on the higher frequencies than a standard “wah.” The “fast phaser” is guitar going though a filter with an LFO controlling the cutoff frequency and lots of resonance, so it has the “weeweeweewee…” fast thing going on in the higher frequencies.
Bar 66 – the lead guitar is playing an F# (making it a D major chord), but the rhythm still plays a Dm chord. It goes by pretty fast, so it shouldn’t be a problem.
The choruses are left & right distorted guitars, and he’d play the 2nd one another day in the studio so it would have a different feel and sound.
Download the Lead Guitar Tab Here
Download the Rhythm Guitar Tab Here
Strum Guitar & Ukulele
There is no strum guitar or Ukulele part in this song, so a part was made up to strum along.
Download the Strum Tab Here
Download the Ukulele Tab Here
Bass Guitar
Another great Flea part, played with the fingers. It tends to get a sort of dirty broken up tone in the louder parts.
Download the Bass Tab Here
Drums
A funky Chad Smith part with plenty of drags, ghost notes and dynamics. The hi-hats have many levels between closed and opened, which I tried to notate as well as possible, but it’s really a feel thing. Same with the snare ghost notes and drags.
Download the Drum Music Here
Download the Lead Sheet Here
