Under The Bridge Guitar Tabs

The Red Hot Chili Peppers hit “Under the Bridge,” a deceivingly ambient melody in which front man Anthony Keidis relates his struggle with heroin addiction, still gets regular radio play nearly 20 years after its debut on the 1992 album “Blood Sugar Sex Magik.” It also gets repeated props from aspiring guitarists in dorm rooms and apartments everywhere who take it upon themselves to add the “Under the Bridge” guitar tabs to their repertoire of covers.

Enter the term “Under the Bridge” guitar tabs into the YouTube search engine and more than 180 results will pop up, including step-by-step lessons in how to play the song. Contributor John Hasson, for example, created a virtual graphic presentation that shows a computer image of a guitar’s six strings and beams lighting up each corresponding string as the song plays in the background.

Hasson’s video is only 46 seconds. But a full 3-minute video by Joe Wiles of the Rock and Roll Conservatory appears in person with a guitar in hand and demonstrates the specific chords and how he forms them. Wiles notes that at the time of the video’s production, the tabs to “Under the Bridge” are the 66th most frequently downloaded guitar tabs on the Internet.

When you’re just starting to learn the “Under the Bridge” guitar tabs, it probably helps to have the chords written out for you as well as told to you verbally. You’ll get the written tablature at the site Tababunga, a Web site that compiles guitar tabs to hundreds of songs.

Accompanying the Tababunga “Under the Bridge” tablature is a 10-minute video showing a guitarist playing the song for you. He doesn’t say anything, but he does stop and play each chord slowly while the camera zooms in up close enough for you to see what he’s doing.

Once you master “Under the Bridge” and start playing it, you’ll be in good company. The a cappella group The Flying Pickets covered it on their 1994 debut album. Jazz musician Frank Bennett followed two years later with his own version, in which he added some elements of bebop and big band. Mos Def, Tony Hadley, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra have also adopted the song into their play lists.

All Saints, a British pop band, is credited with having the most popular cover version, though it deleted certain references to drug use. Keidis did not think very highly of this version, however.

Posted October 21st, 2010 in Guitar Tabs, Shopping.

Comments are closed.

Under The Bridge Guitar Tabs

Categories