How to play Black Summer by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Black Summer is the hit single from Red Hot Chilli Pepper’s 2022 album Unlimited Love, the album that heralded the return of guitarist John Frusicante to the classic line up. Though not RHCP’s biggest hit Black Summer is a great song chart for steel-string guitar students, featuring open-position chords, some arpeggio picking and a mix of simple rhythms plus some syncopated chord phrases.
Chords: Em G D A C E
Pick or Fingers? The pick is recommended for all steel-string guitars but finger-style interpretation can work on acoustic steel. Will also work fine for nylon-string finger-style learners.
Acoustic or Electric? The guitar part on the RHCP recording is the classic Fender electric sound. Electric guitar is the best choice to emulate the style of the original but this song also sounds good on acoustic guitars. Use the guitar you are learning on . . .
Lead guitar part : This chart is for the rhythm accompaniment to Black Summer but the recording also features some very cool solo playing in the E Blues mode. It’s classic Rock-blues phrasing is well phrased and is a suitable solo for developing electric players.
How can I read the notes in the intro? Although the notes may look hard at first sight, you can relax - it’s really not that hard! All you have to do is hold the E minor chord and pick the strings as indicated by the circled numbers. The result is a standard arpeggio pattern; as long as you keep the chord still it should work okay. Most of Black Summer is chord rhythm playing. You really don’t need TAB through a whole chart just to indicate a few bars worth of simple notation!
Relevant pages in Modern Guitar Chord Styles 1 : To learn more about the chords, rhythms and arpeggio patterns in Black Summer got to pages 5, 8, 10, 12, 14 - 15, 17, 20 - 21 and 40.
And finally, what’s up with Anthony Kiedis singing like a pirate?! Apparently it’s a tribute to Welsh singer-songwriter Cate Le Bon, but we’re not sure if he pulls it off!
Need a bit of help?
Modern Guitar Chord Styles 1 is the perfect companion for our song guides. It will teach you how to read the rhythm slash notation used in our charts (and in professional theatre and studio charts) and is specially designed to help beginners speed up their chord changes, master strumming patterns, and many other techniques.
