Check out all my vids at: www.the-art-of-guitar.com Get exclusive footage, become my Patreon: / theartofguitar Even the 'easiest' riffs have more depth than we usually think. What level do you do this part?
That was my thinking as well. People are like level 6, 7, over 9000. When in reality it was extra shot of vodka washed down with Jägermeister that shouldn't been there.
I don't want to confuse you... but if you need that long for fucking "Wonderall" you should practice a little more or maybe accept that you maybe (!) have no talent? :D
I don’t get why people always hate on Kurt Cobain as a guitarist. He’s a good and a adaptable one and he pulled off so much with the little he knew. I don’t see him as a “guitarist”, rather I see him as a great artist.
The main reason Nirvana got so much hatred was because of all those Glam Metal band who were destroyed by them. Metal Band worked more hard in guitar techniques and stuffs...but then came Nirvana with pure raw music with simple guitar technique and with nice poems and nice voice. Every artist was Jealous of Nirvana, because they stole their fans. And some glam fan boys picked up Nirvana's weakness in musical technicality and they did negative marketing, what you call pulling legs.
Lantern Well, you have to give credit to Kurt for being a good composer even though his guitar skills were limited musically speaking, still l think that the music industry used his early death to portrait him as a genius and as a guy who changed the late 90's rock sound, imo nirvana was one of the good grudge music's pioneers, but again bands like soundgarden, Alice in chains, and Pearl Jam were technically and musically superior, althought it is hard to deny that Kurt was a talented song writer and composer, and a great artist with lots of charisma.
Kurt plays punk music. He once even says that punk is a musical freedom. Playing saying and doing what you want. He plays music to have fun and entertain people and not to show off.
When it comes to artists, its not the technique. its the final product. I work in film, and you would be amazed how some of the best cinematographers barely know how to use the camera. BUT, when they coordinate the lighting, the framing, and the color pallette its magic. You hire technicians if you need perfect. Perfect is often boring.
I'm with you. I know how to play it, and i can play it, but getting it just right is something that involves more than just the right notes and strumming. This can be said for most songs. but this is one that people consider super easy, which i guess if you look note for note, sure, simple.. but in the end not really cut and dry.
The-Art-of-Guitar Level 8 lol, sometimes he will slide the power cords especially when he's going from the last power cord back to the first power cord.
Its really difficult to gauge weather he was a guitar genius or a slob from this. Definitely the king of subtlety in those techniques. Simple things like that upstroke add something to the music. Something in the way is another one of those great yet subtle songs. I guess grunge was meant to be trashy and unpolished anyway
Nah it was all intentional, it’s the whole point of “Grunge” it wasn’t supposed to be clean or perfect. It was break the norm and speak out. Breaking the mold did that. Needed to be around in that time to get how it was
Yeah, that drummer had some great hard drum licks. Its crazy how much he looks like the singer of Foo Fighters. If they ever do a tribute/reunion show they could totally get that guy.
Wow, cobain really brings a lot of imperfect perfection into a song meant to vibe with people who feel imperfect. I would have never realized how homemade his playing is without this. Thanks dude!
I just finished a lesson where I was figuring this out with a student, trying to determine whether this song uses 5th chords or barre chords. I heard the sus chords and thought, wtf? How many people noticed this? Then watch a live performance and noticed the two-finger barres. Then looked it up to see if anyone's teaching it that way, and of course you are. Always catching the details, great stuff as usual!
I started playing the guitar cuz of Nirvana. One cool thing that I learned about him was it was very VERY easy to play almost exactly like him as the chords were easy, but it was VERY hard to make it sound like him exactly. I have seen shredders who could play circles around me not play Nirvana songs right because Kurt's mind was so weird and he learned how to play the guitar on his own so he forged his own little tricks to get through the plateaus and sticking points.
The Cobain Chord is always me when I play anything on guitar. No idea it had a name. my friendo calls it "quit doing your stupid T-Rex thing". 5 years of playing and I can't fucking stop. it's just a bad habit man.
The point of his comment is that the opening chords for SLTS is the same as More Than A Feeling. Even Kurt acknowledged this and would troll the audience live by playing More Than A Feeling before transitioning into Teen Spirit
In other words, play it kind of fast and kind of sloppy. But not too sloppy. Just sloppy enough. And btw the way, we need to get our terminology right. It's not clicky clickys. It's chicka chickas. Not to be confused with the chugga chuggas of heavy metal fame.
Such a good lesson!!! I normally cringe when technically perfect players play nirvana, a lot of people just don't get the fact that Kurt worked hard to be imperfect and he was a better player than he let on. Better rhythm chops than most too. Once again thanks for your superb lesson.
Are impressionists just bad painters? Technical proficiency does not equal artistic merit. Being 'skilled' or 'good' are not necessarily related either. One might be capable of playing any riff, no matter how intricate or difficult and yet still fail to write a moving piece of music.
Kirk Cobain didn't become who he was because of his skill, he created the grunge sound and his songs people could relate with. He was a smart guy smarter then most people give him credit for.. He remained himself he didn't let money or fame change him. It's ashame Courtney Love never faced charges for his death.
I've seen a lot of this guy's videos and have found every single one of them helpful and informative. Keep it up man your doing great work here . My son and I have gained a lot from your lessons.
Professor, just wanted you to know I am a beginner bass player, but after so many 'arrivals' in your channel I also bought an accustic guitar... after an hour or so with the guitar I played a good level of Smells Like Teen Spirit without ever touching a guitar to play, and I credit it to you and your videos/methods of teaching: there are lots of great guitar players all over, but only a few have the ART-OF-TEACHING! Thank you and cheers from Brazil! (Not stopping the groove btw)
Good point about the upstroke. It was used because looks cooler on stage and we get a "brushy" sound which rocks a lot. Like the first chord on On a Plain.
Do you think Kurt played 'level 7' live because he was bored of doing the same thing with that song all the time? He was a decent rythem guitarist but didn't care about playing tight, especially live, because he respected/wanted to be punk too much. I can almost imagine him just playing the upstroke out of boredom/slight hatred, it's a bit of an agressive move like you're pulling/scatching at the strings. But maybe I'm over analysing a bit lol. This is a really cool lesson, I've moved past SLTS at stage 4 I've just realised because I could play it at that level and wasn't too fussed about learning it better, but the barring of the 4th string on the lower strings is such an important detail that I never cared enough to explore. Genuinely opened my eyes!
These say it takes longer to form a habit then it does to break a habit. He probably played it one way in the studio, then started playing it another way live (in the studio he didn't play the rhythm guitar intro live, he dubbed it onto the recording later) when he was singing and maybe nervous in front of a crowd. I mean, he played Lithium differently live as well, so maybe there's something to that.
A hard down stroke is also a different kind of aggression than a hard upstroke.A hard upstroke just feels more destructive to me, more tension and more dissonant. A downstroke is hard but feels more controlled.
it's like he shows how genius Kurt was adding those little details but in realuty Kurt was just sloppy punk player who did this naturally being stoned, reminds me of todays filters in console emulators to emulate TV scanlines and NTSC artifacts using complex shaders while CRT TVs did it by their nature naturally
I know! Or those jeans that are all torn up to look all grungy but they are crafted that way on purpose by textile workers at the factory, then they add an extra 50$ to the price. They do the same thing to guitars. It’s totally fake wear. Kurt would have hated it.
I really like these ... LEVELS of ... kinda videos, they are fun to watch and make me wanna relearn these riffs, so i can get them right. I actually really hope that you keep making them, because maybe i can learn some new riffs too. :)
Likewise. It's sort of over-analyzing the chaos of one punk guitar player's natural messy style. Still nice that the uploader realizes there are many ways to play the same thing though.
Yeah, but at the same time I think he'd appreciate that at least someone is trying to put it out there that the songs aren't as black and white as they seem, and that this style of music has it's quirks that are more important than the notation itself.
Pretty sure it was just a result of him being a self-taught guitar player who developed a lot of bad habits. He was more a singer/songwriter than a "guitar player" as we usually think of them.
in other words: play sloppy and you'll get the tone. he didn't miss anything on purpose, he just didn't really care about perfect precision that much :D
Omg THANK you for this awesome insight! Love how specific it is, I was always wondering why my playing sounded just a bit off from the recording, ended up being that first “click” in level 6 ;) Thanks, this was awesome!
it has helped me so much to learn this riff because I was trying to do level 3 from the beggining but now that I started from level 1 and gradually went up it became much easier. Thank you .
Nice! Loving level 7, the up stroke and the sus chords sound really cool. If you are a strong player with solid classical guitar technique, you CAN be creative and get different sounds by playing unconventionally, because your left hand strength will allow you to. Therefore, I wouldn't necessarily encourage bad or wrong technique for the purpose of discovering original chord voicings or strumming techniques, in most cases it will be limiting, rather than enabling
Awesome video. Iam very impressed that you have noticed those extra tips of Kurt good job. What about making a video to show us the levels on can't stop by red hot chili peppers? It would be awesome! I also subscribed keep the good job .
when you made the upstroke the first stroke it suddenly clicked in my head how style seriously effects how a song sounds. Its just such a small and profound difference.
It gives me immense pleasure to let you know that I used to play at level 3.5 ✌❤✌🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳 I.e. I always played with the up strokes included to play at level 4, bu I never realised that I could make a little noise using open strings to connect 2nd and 3rd chords as well as 4th and 1st. Now I do, so now I definitely play at level 4, and I'm fiddling with starting with an up stroke, so as to play at level 8. I'm also trying to use the Kobain chord.
This is incredibly accurate, thank you for your due diligence to this legendary riff. A prime example of why Nirvana songs can be way harder than people think (to truly learn & try to capture the spirit of the song).
This is a quality video and I just want to say thanks, it opened my eyes, or rather ears. The up strums on the bar do make a difference, I hadn't appreciated that before. Also lightly touching the G string for the chords, yes.
