Red Hot Chili Peppers - Give It Away - Guitar Lesson

Blood Sugar Sex Magik (Deluxe Edition)

1991 4:43

Listen on Spotify

About Give It Away

Few funk-rock riffs land as hard as the one that opens "Give It Away." John Frusciante builds the whole thing around a single-note, percussive groove in E minor, played with a tight, muted attack that locks in with Flea's bass almost seamlessly. Getting that tone right means keeping your picking hand aggressive but controlled, with heavy palm muting and very little sustain. The riff sits in a narrow range on the lower strings, which sounds deceptively simple until you realise how much rhythmic precision it demands. Even a slightly loose sense of timing makes it fall apart. Use the Practice Toolbar to loop the main riff slowed down and focus on matching your pick attack to the pulse before you bring it up to tempo. Red Hot Chili Peppers built this track around groove over complexity, so treat it as a rhythm workout first and a lead exercise second.

• The signature riff is a percussive, palm-muted single-note line in E minor that demands a very consistent and aggressive picking attack throughout.
• Because the riff is harmonically sparse, any rhythmic inconsistency is immediately obvious, making tight timing the main technical challenge to overcome.
• Practising the riff at a reduced tempo with the Practice Toolbar will help you lock in the muted attack before pushing back up to full speed.