Nirvana made me rethink the chords I use | Follow The Sound 

i really hate when nirvanas music gets set to the tone of "teenage angst" or puberty. sorry but at 36 years old the lyrics are just as relevant and you dont have to be moody or angsty to think that way. its more than that. its clever.

“If you’re guitar is out of tune sing out of tune” -Kurt Cobain

guys that don't know theory just kinda do this if the ear tells them to

I was learning in Bloom other day and I was pretty surprised how complex it was to but what a great song this is thanks for sharing

The way of Kurt to make chords is blow mind, he only use power chords which doesnt give a defined sense of tonallyty, making his music very interpretative, cause you feel it happy or you feel it sad it doesnt matter, is like a mirror of what you feel. Nice video by the way, greatings from Chile🇨🇱 🌶

I could write a book on his melodic sensibility, but Drain You is my favourite example. If you extrapolate the power chords (or accidental majors and sus4s) the full chords would sound as A C#m F#m Bm / A C# F# Bm/B/B5/whatever. It's just such a crazy and unique approach to parallel majors/minors. The way he straddled the major/minor third was actually very bluesy. I always said Nirvana is the only genuine blues form for white folk. Rape Me and Dumb both do the implied Em right up to last bar when he sings a G#. Drain You does the same. Lithium has that too in the bridge. When it goes to the C (which sounds as Bb) he's singing e g d# / e e d# e e.. which makes the C a Cm.. or a C Neither. It' defies melody on paper and yet is SO tuneful. I just don't get it. Kurt also loved using 6ths and sharp 11ths. In fact the 'Nirvana scale' if there was one, would be something like i, ii, biii, iii, #iv, v, vi, bvii. It's a cross between lydian diminished and what is apparently called the acoustic scale (lydian dominant). And my other favourite is Sappy. More #4s.

Nirvana has had a Hugh influence on my songwriting

One of the best bands ever for borrowed chords, especially from parallel scales. There's usually a tonal center, chords from the parallel major and minor scales both point back to the same tonal center. Power chords on the I/i, IV/iv, and V/v further reinforce the tonal ambiguity. Its like a super scale with all the chords from the major and minor keys.

The quiet/loud/Pixies things is so overstated. Usually, these days, it's tossed out as a way to diminish Nirvana. Kurt was always humble and had no ego about crediting other artists so he had no issue name-checking Pixies. Allow me to summarize- nirvana's music was more than quiet/loud. So was Pixies. Pixies didn't create quiet/loud, and it's an obvious and prevalent way to do verse/chorus, change dynamics, etc. Every artist has influences. PS- great video!

Dude! This is great stuff!

That was an amazing video. Thanks bro

Make more lessons about Nirvana songs that use borrowed chords

great voice. great video

Awesome, very informative and well presented.

Elliott Smith also used many borrowed chords. Love that about both of them

Subscribed. Great vid

Funny, when you listen to the vocal melody of the YEAH part of Lithium without the chords, its basically the Baker Street saxophone part 😂 Also, neither of these songs are in dropped D. For Lithium, he's in standard but down a whole step, and Polly is just standard. Everything on In Utero is just standard down a half step, except HSB and All Apologies, which are dropped D flat.

It was all instinct, i can guarantee Kurt didn’t know anything about parallel minor keys

You can’t really borrow chords from the relative minor, it has all the same notes.

Great video! Very interesting analysis on Kurt's compositions, and it landed very well with my recent thoughts on my own compositions, some of which I was considering if I leaned on power chords, for more liberty in the melody, or if I used more "conventional" chords. This thougth started on the necessity to reach out of a major scale, in the same vein of these examples.

Nice vid. Theres a Nirvana "easy tab" book with the vocal lines transcribed. Good for study or even making instrumentals

About a girl def doesnt use the minor note. Kurt had a knack for muting the 3rd, which allowed him to use distorion to create ringing power chords. About a girl and rape me are prime rxamples of this. Cool video, bro. Thanks for sharing

Interesting take but Lithium, Polly and Pennyroyal Tea are all played in either standard tuning or half step down. None of these songs are played with low E string dropped. Dont take my word for it, watch any of the live performances - Paramount is standard tuning. Reading is in half step down. The songs with low string dropped are Negative Creep, Heart Shaped Box, Scentless Apprentice, All Apologies and a few other ones I cant think of right now.

it’s like a nursery rhyme that makes you want to sing along ( see what i did there )

*2:40* Pixies aren't *technically* a "punk band" (they're more of a "surf-rock" band in their first incarnation) but I'm sympathetic. I always feel Pixies were closer in spirit to the Sex Pistols than a lot of US punk bands

Yeah the only songs from Nevermind that are in Drop D are On A Plain and Something In The Way. Lithium, Drain You, Come As You Are and the outtake Verse Chorus Verse were all recorded in D standard (DGCFAD).

I would, invest early in this channel.

That's not how you play Lithium or Polly. Neither of them are even in drop D

Good video but the pixies is not a punk band, school is about kurt being a janitor at his highschool and polly and lithium are in standard tuning

Fair enough.

Sorry, but Lithium wasn't done in drop D. The whole guitar was tuned a whole step down.

Great video. In my opinion, I do think there are better examples of borrowed chords being used in rock music. I think nirvana has been celebrated enough and the beauty of their songs is that they had a lot of energy and not a lot of thinking behind them.

It's PARALLEL just for the record. Good information, thanks.

this is an awesome video! i would like to ask though, would this translate if you played lithium in its actual tuning? kurt actually played lithium in D standard or full step down on the album

Pixies werent a punk band. 80s punk was Misfits, Black Flagg, Dead Kennedys, Minor Threat, etc. Pixies were College Rock with REM and XTC. Pixies did spawn almost every 90s band from England. They were bigger in the UK than here for a long time.

Do you know if he was actually in drop d or is it drop c#?

Lots of uptight nerds in the comments. It literally doesn’t matter what tuning Kurt played in, you could even change the key, it still wouldn’t matter. It all comes down to the relationships between the notes. If this was a video about how Kurt played guitar, then sure, let’s get picky, but it’s about songwriting.

Okay so I’ve been told Kurt knew nothing about music thoery at all just had really good ear but I just think surely he knew the basic and what to do with chords progression and stuff. Anyone know if he really did know any music theory?

Lithium & Polly are not in drop D, it’s standard tuning, texturally it makes a huge difference. Nice effort though.

What's parallel minor I know relative minors

How the hell could he do all this without knowing any theory at all?

Joy this video, until it gets pulled off for copyright content strikes

lithium isnt in drop d

Why are you playing lithium and polly in drop d? The whole guitar is tuned down there. Plus i think you looked at those songs in the wrong way: they are iust a mixmatch of e and em chords, whole stuff tuned 1 tone down. Simple as that, as it should be.

Death grips

Ko'Trane

You’re confusing the bridge with the chorus. The chorus isn’t yeah yeah yeah… this is the bridge The chorus is I like it, not gonna crack, etc

Oh, I thought you meant 'borrowed chords' from the Who, Cheap Trick, Alice Cooper, Aerosmith and Boston. 😳

Kurt: It’s not that deep bro 🤪

1) he didn't play everything in drop D. So it is weird to make out this is what he was doing. 2) what was the point you were trying to make in this video? It was very unclear.

I always hated finding out the word was crack, and not cry.

Nice video but your voice is buried under way too loud sound effects and music that make it hard to understand sometimes, example there ; 1:03 But again, nice video. Good watch.

algorithim

he's no Rick B.

Bleach is their only good album. That and unplugged in NY.

Kurt: random druggie who happened to play guitar. Random RU-vidr: Kurt was about to crack the theory of everything with his power cords.

Kurt had little to no musical theory crafting in writing his songs. Attempting to break his art down to some sort underlying method completely misses the message. And Lithium isn't in drop D.

Your overthinking it lol they were an overrated garage band , he wrote vocal melodies over simplistic chord progressions he had no clue about theory