john frusciante profile

john frusciante is the guitarist for the band, the red hot chili peppers, the alternate rock/funk/metal band from LA.

frusciante has only been in one band his whole life, RHCP. he joined them in 1988 after their first guitarist, hillel slovak died of a drug overdose. with the help of frusciante, the band rose to stardom and became one of the best known bands in the world, yet parted from their underground, hardcore funk scene. however, fame took it's toll on the young frusciante and he spiralled into a 6 year long heroin habit which almost cost him his life. he rejoined the band in 1997 and released the album "californication". since then they have become, once again, one of the biggest bands in the world.

frusciante is one of the few, famous, mainstream guitarists today who doesn't just strum some powerchord and use lame, harmonized guitars. he is, fundamentally, a guitarist from the blues school of playing; his biggest influence is jimi hendrix and it shows in his playing.

he chooses to use analog effects (circuits and wires in a box as opposed to digital) and old guitars (his main guitar is a 1961 stratocaster, worth tens of thousands). his playing before he left the RHCP is characterized by hard, brash, funk-metal licks, typical of the period. it is no secret that he was a huge jerk during this time and his music reflects this, although, their 1991 album blood sugar sex magik, (frusciante's last before his hiatus) is regarded by many as RHCP's magnum opus; it features sex-laden, laid back funk tracks mixed with acoustic and experimental tracks.

since frusciante's rebirth in the late 90's, his playing has taken on a more "spiritual" path; his soloing is simple, yet effective and he chooses to use simple, melodic playing over shredding like paul gilbert or someone similar. frusciante has said himself he tries to play under flea (RHCP bassist) which is unusal, but works since flea is a very active, intense bassist. as i said before, frusciante's style is very similar to hendrix and other players of the time (but mostly hendrix). in terms of chordal work, he chooses to use sparse double stops and triads (double stops are 2 notes played at once, triads are chords made up of 3 notes) in a 16th note funk rhythm (think disco or something) with a wah pedal (a pedal that takes off treble and adds bass and vice versa) to create staccato, dry, funky rhythms. for other chord work such as choruses and stuff he never really uses anything more than a minor, major or dominant 7th chord (chords with 4 notes). he prefers to let flea take up most of the musical space.

frusciante is a pretty limited and simple player, but he's also very effective in what he does and has managed to inspire a generation of young guitarists and make a mark on music itself.

this video is a perfect demonstration of frusciante's style (post 1998). the very starting chords and lines could be taken straight from a hendrix gig and they are actually very similar to a hendrix song named "midnight". the first chord he plays is an E7#9, also known as the "hendrix chord" (it was originally a song used in jazz but hendrix incorporated into much of his work, most notably, purple haze). he uses his wah pedal and long, bluesy notes, bluesy bends and lots of pentatonic soloing to great extent here, as well as his whammy bar. listen to flea and focus on how much flea is adding to the mix compared to frusciante.