10 Alt Rock Songs That Are Impossible To Play On Guitar

It was an incredibly slow process trying to bring John Frusciante back from the edge in the late '90s. Although the Chili Peppers were thrilled to have John back in the band after exiting on the Blood Sugar Sex Magik tour, years of drug abuse had started to take their toll on his body, having to get a lot of his chops back from scratch on Californication. The fact that he's here is an act of musical determination, and Snow is the moment where we saw a guitar legend fully reborn.

Which is strange because hardly any part of this song features any distorted solo part. If anything, Snow might be one of the most mellow songs in the Peppers' catalog, but it also might just break your hand if you're not careful. Throughout every single section of this song, John has to play a tricky lick that involves different hammer ons alternating between chords. The whole thing sounds easy when you first pick it up, but the trick is to do it at the correct speed, almost feeling like a rock and roll aerobics routine trying to sustain yourself all the way to the end.

The art of the guitar solo may have been dying out around the turn of the '00s, but playing Snow straight through without stopping isn't just your typical rock and roll song. If anything, this is just a guitar endurance test that somehow disguised itself as one of the Peppers' greatest tunes.