Transcribing Notes From John Neil (Head Transcriber)
Shake Me Like a Monkey – Dave Matthews Band – Song Breakdown
In this song, the time signature shifts a lot, especially in the choruses, and especially the 3rd chorus. This is my interpretation of the time changes, which may or may not be what they went by, but either way, it all lines up with the recording.
Drum Sheet Music
More awe-inspiring drumming from Carter Beauford. I wasn’t fortunate enough to find an isolated recording for this one, so I relied on the ‘listen very closely’ method. There is a video of him performing this live, with the cameras on him the entire time, though, which helped. I also made use of a Waves plugin called “Center” where I could take out everything in the center of the stereo spectrum, leaving the sides. This was helpful to hear things such as the hi-hats, though they were still buried in the mix, especially in the verses. So it was still difficult to hear exactly when they were played, as well as if they were stepped or sticked. I ended up making most of them sticked, as that’s how he plays it in that live video. There is also the question as to whether or not he sticks the hi-hat upon closing it after an open one. I did do that when it was more of a solid hit. All in all, there is some leeway on how you play the hi-hats.
I also might have changed the way he plays some of the stuff in the bridge. There seems to be a regular ride going on the 8th notes, but also lots of tom work – many 16th note passages which he may be doing with 1 hand, or it may be overdubs. I took some of the ride hits out to favor the more complicated tom fills.
And of course, there may be a shaker track added in there in some parts, on 16th notes, way in the background, making it more difficult to make out if some hits are ghost snares, hi-hats, or shakers (or even acoustic strumming on 16th notes).
Bass Guitar
A very fast moving bass part played with the fingers. There are a lot of repeating lines with some variations, so once you learn some of the song, you already know a lot of it. There is a melodic bridge as well to break things up.
Get the Bass Guitar Sheet Here