Californication Guitar Lesson - Red Hot Chili Peppers

Genre: Alternative Rock

Difficulty level: intermediate

Guitar techniques you will learn in this lesson:

• open chords
• bar chords
• arpeggio
• strumming + strumming pattern
• lead guitar techniques
  • pull off
  • hammer on
  • string bending
  • slide
• rhythm

This electric guitar lesson teaching Californication is a huge lesson teaching basically every guitar skill imaginable, so learning it well will really be worth your while, since it develops techniques you’ll be using all throughout your life as a guitarist. 

You’ll be learning a bunch of chords, which should already take a bit of time for you to learn and get used to, as well as changing in between the chords. You’ll be strumming, and arpeggiating these chords, as well as performing hammer-ons and pull-offs while plucking the arpeggios. You’ll be learning a fun solo as well, which will further improve your lead guitar technique.

As I said, the guitar lesson on Californication is a long lesson with a lot of technique, and that’s exactly why it’s so useful! It will probably take a while before you can play this song really well, but don’t worry about it, it’s all part of the learning curve. Mastering a song like this will mean that you are one BIG step further ahead on your way to becoming a proficient guitarist, so watch the lesson, learn the song and I’ll see you at your next gig :-).

Song Details

Californication by the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ was released in the year 2000 on the album Californication, the band’s seventh studio album. Red Hot Chili wrote this song to talk about the darker aspects of Hollywood, and also has references to the decline in western society, pornography plastic surgery and even some pop culture references to Star Wars and Kurt Cobain of Nirvana.

The music video for the song was themed like a video game, with noticeable references to existing video games like Tomb Raider, Grand Theft Auto (I love that game!), Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater (this one too :-)) etc.

Awards and chart rankings:

• Billboard Hot 100: #69 
• UK charts: #16
• US Modern Tracks: #1
• US Mainstream Rock Tracks: #1