In this free drum lesson I’ll be showing you another extract from my eBook teaching the classic intro drum beat from the song “Dani California” by Red Hot Chili Peppers.
“Dani California” Drum Beat Demonstration (1 of 124 Videos available on the DVD’s)
View the video on YouTube HERE – Learn How To Play Drums Song Dani California Video Drum Beat Lesson (Red Hot Chili Peppers & Chad Smith)
Why The “Dani California” Drum Beat Is So Great
This song starts to the sound of Chad Smith pounding out one of his trademark drum grooves. More bouncing hi-hats
and ghost note to delight us!
How To Play It
This is the basic groove Chad plays for the verses and can clearly be heard right at the beginning of the song. Chad chooses to improvise with the groove, adding extra hi-hat openings and occasionally missing out the the left hand drag
played at the end of the bar.
Chad plays the hi-hat in his own signature style for this groove. The right hand plays steady eighth notes while his left
foot bounces up and down on the pedal, at the same time as the hi-hat is struck. This creates a rather unique and cool
sounding “swish” sound.
A snare drum backbeat is supplied on beats 2 and 4 of the bar and a left handed thirty second note drag is played at the
end of the bar, starting on the ‘a’ of beat 4. These two thirty second notes are ghost notes (marked in brackets) and so
are played quietly, starting in between the hi-hats, and just before beat 1 of the next bar.
The bass drum is played on beats 1, the ‘+’ of beat 1, beat 3 and the ‘+’ of beat 3. An extra bass drum is played on the
‘a’ of beat 2, in between the hi-hats. This little push into the downbeat of beat 3 gives the groove forward momentum.
