How Nirvana Writes A Chord Progression | Artists Series S2E2
Vložit
- čas přidán 27. 08. 2024
- ▶▶ Craft your image and reveal it through your music! Learn to create music that makes bodies move, touches hearts and captures minds. Music that only you could write. That's what we teach at Holistic Songwriting Academy.
Find out more here: holistic-songw...
▶ Get your first two months of Skillshare for only $0.99: skl.sh/Holistic
▶ Join the community, claim gifts: bit.ly/HSWelcom...
✔ Subscribe: bit.ly/Subscrib...
▶ Take one of my Songwriting Courses: bit.ly/HSenroll
❤ Leave a tip: bit.ly/virtual_...
▶ Buy a shirt: bit.ly/HS_Merch
▶ Read the blog: bit.ly/Read_HS_...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Holistic Songwriting is the most relevant resource for modern Songwriters/Producers on the net.
Friedemann Findeisen is an award-winning songwriter and the author of the bestselling book "The Addiction Formula". As a musical profiler, he coaches some of the biggest producers in Germany.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Video Equipment used:
✔ Camera: bit.ly/profilecam
✔ Lens: bit.ly/blurrylens
✔ Lighting: bit.ly/2softboxes
✔ Back light: bit.ly/HSbacklight
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
➽ Follow me on Facebook: holistic...
➽ Join me on Twitter: / holisticsongs
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ever wonder how Kurt Cobain wrote his songs and what role Power Chords played in his writing? Here's your answers, plus a whole lot more.
how kurt actually made progressions: move the power chord shape around the fretboard until you finding something that sounds cool
lol yeah this dude is overanalyzing this shit so much
Yeah so all you have to do is have the musical talent of Kurt Cobain and you can write songs like him! Or, for the rest of us, you can watch videos like these and have a better understanding of how he did it. I like these videos, keep it up!
@@BeastmanUCF I wouldn't say this is how he did it, I'd say it's more how it works.
Totally missing the point. They wouldn't even be chords if it wasn't for the melody he sings, which is the what the whole video is about.
@Liam Beyer and we still come to the same conclusion. That Kurt just moves around power chords randomly.
Let’s take Aneurysm, for example. Intro of F# - C - B - A. Doesn’t really fit into much of a pattern unless you hyper analyze it. Even more so when you look at it the way Kurt plays it sloppily... F#sus4 - Cmaj - Bmaj- Amaj.. typically with the B and e string ringing
Then he does a basic chromatic scale on the G string starting st the third fret with the B and E strings ringing going up at an uneven rhythm to an arbitrary end (no version is the same... even in the same recording of the song).
Then it’s just alternating between B and D power chords for the verse with B being clean and D being distorted.
Then the chorus is just F# - G - A - A# - B - A. Pretty much a random pattern with lots of half-step intervals.
If you want to see Kurt at the peak of his random power chords... listen to Milk In on In Utero. A# - E - G (with an open E string for a couple beats) - G# - E
if kurt made this video himself it would be 30 seconds long.
"just find a chord you like and branch off and be creative"
My music teacher when I told him I wanted to learn guitar:
This is a power chord, you can move it around. Now go form a band.
Zer0Spinn When I told my teacher I wanted to learn piano:
"You'll never be popular or sexy."
@@basedbattledroid3507 You'll be popular and sexy if you eat meat.
@@analogeit I did see him in an interview once and they asked about music theory and he just said " its worthless, it only gets in the way". Not sure if that means he did know theory or not..
@@jesse.b613 czcams.com/video/tSNUYTBao7I/video.html
Kurt was quoted, "I was lazy and waited to the last minute and just wrote down a bunch of garble. Then spent all my time trying to explain what the songs actually meant".
sly angler lyrics wise
sly angler ohh theres still hope for me i see xD
Lol such a piscean
@@michelleottley5292 oh stfu
@@westonwheeler2311 He was into astology and really related to it though.(so in his case he was "such a Pisces")
"I have no concept of knowing how to be a musician at all, whatsoever. I mean I don't know the name of the chords I play, I don't know how to do major or minor chords on a guitar at all. I couldn't even pass you know, Guitar 101. Everyone knows more than I do" - Kurt Cobain
He knew scales
@@demos1936 i dont think he knew scals he didnt even knew if he was playing major or minor chords
@@mikoaj5891 he knew, there are a lot of evidence, he was maybe joking or exagerating about it.
@@juannauj9631 Kurt was a far more capable guitarist than he liked to let on. He started playing the piano at four, and had been playing guitar for 6 years by the time he formed Nirvana. I'd recommend the Nevermind episode of VH1 Classic Albums if you want to get an idea of what he was like behind the public image.
@@surfdigby yeah i know, i never said something against that idea, i said that he knew a lot about guitar, maybe not on a high level of theory, but more than usually gets credit for.
Another explanation for major where you expect minor is that an overdriven major chord sounds way sweeter then a minor one. Good video!
This! People miss the big reason why he used these chords and it all has to do with the equipment he used (the distortion pedals) and the sound they made which affected completely the use of certain chords. Barre chords would be way too muddy for a 3 piece band with that much distortion on just one guitar.
if Paul Davids says the video is great, the video is great
Kurt never used overdrive pedals but yeah distortion and dynamics come into effect during his creative process
I don't think Kurt realized any of these things at all
most of these things are merely interpretations of this guy who never lived on 80's and 90's.
a lot of bs here
Most of these are tho, Kurt was a feminist punk rocker that rebelled agaisnt a buncj of things
Who cares. You can still analyze what someone did and see how they did it so you can do something similar. That's what great about music theory. You can learn from others and know why it sounds so good.
It doesnt matter whether or not he knew what he was doing, he still DID it.
Nobody said he did. smh
I have literally never heard anybody use the word "gender" to describe chords.
Lol I know right. I was like wtf? I bet I know this guys political leanings just by those comments.
Gordon Adams Gender = masculine/feminine
@@ltrain4479 yeah I bet you do
Its 2019 man chords can identify with whatever gender they want now.
tymime
Bingo!!!
gender is BS to music
"pro legalization of MARY-YU-ANA"
Lmao I’m glad I’m not the only one who noticed that
If I had a daughter, I would name her Mary Yu Ana.
So to write a Nirvana tune, start on happy chords and end sad chords or start on sad chords and end on happy chords. Distortion is optional on either parts depending on your mood.
Sing in a major note on the sad chords, sing on the minor for the happy chords.
Screaming or yelling is optional depending on your mood.
can you give me examples on what the sad and happy chords are, and what you mean by "major notes on sad chords and minor notes on happy chords"? please
@@mikesantiago14here’s the easiest way to think of it. Step 1, pick a key. Say you pick the e key. If you decide to use E minor there are certain modes you can pick but to be Kurt like pick Phrygian. In E key that would be E minor, F major, G major, A minor, C major, D minor. You can view this as the cynical aspect of the E key. The ironically happy scale not sure if they mentioned in the video so you can just use Ionian. E key Ionian chords would be E major, F#minor, G# minor, A major, B major, C# minor. And then cover up these progressions by picking shared chords (for example both keys have an e power chord and an a power chord), turn them into power chords, and emphasizing the key you are actually inferring with melody. Oh and every once in a while shift your power chord down half a step to keep things unexpected.
@@Davidlcorzine that is incredibly helpful. thank you
Kurt Cobain was a power chord musical genius. You can always hear the influence of Pixies, Wipers, Buzzcocks etc. who wrote great unexpected melodies on top of their fast, hard-rocking music but Kurt just took it to a next level. If there's actually people sneering at the mere thought of a power chord they should watch this video. You don't even see it coming as he's playing the same power chord as before but the song's already in a different place when the melody goes from major to minor or vice versa. Playing those full chords to Smells Like Teen Spirit felt like spoilers to something where there's no real ending or solution. It just felt wrong. Fun experiment though, and a great video, thanks!
Sumday hey
I play guitar and have written a little
I don’t play power chords. And very rarely play bar chords
But I really like these videos. And like the fact that power chords leave off some notes from the chord is really interesting how it can effect a chord progression
Just thought I’d comment on what you said
Sumday
Kurt was a musical genius.
Come as you are is not power chords. it's chromatic arpeggio and the melody fits perfectly on it.
He's not the 1st one on mixing major/minor chords...
but he learn to did it very well.
his music is very organic.
He clearly thinks in terms of the whole thing (not only one element)
The people who sneer at power chords would be unable to understand this unless their professor told them so.
@@emzee1148 lmao.
Kurt used power chords because that was all what he needed to do. He could shred but he hated hair metal and he liked to kinda annoy and show off to other musicians/songwriters he could make hit records and great sounding music with sloppy simple easy beginner level guitar playing…that was better then their songs with complex highly skilled guitar playing and music theory. He made a bunk of artists salty. Him playing like a beginner was also part of the character /the image he wanted to present to the masses. The too cool to care, anti rockstar -that was lazy, did not want or like fame or money, too cool to care, who could barely play guitar and wrote lyrics on the fly accidentally wrote hit songs without trying. Kurt could play guitar very well, his lyrics were not meaning less and he spent a lot of time on them and wrote them well in advance. He definitely knew
music theory unlike he said. Analyzing his songwriting and it becomes apparent he did. Billy Corgan and other artists at the time, knew and later on stated the image he created was bullshit. Kurt practiced, wrote 24/7
8:30
The reason you hear that chord as major and NOT minor is because Kurt Cobain plays that chord as a major chord more often then not as an accident. This is because of his technique with power chords. Kurt uses only his index and ring finger, and (as you see and hear in live performances) Kurt barres his ring finger across the fifth and the octave and sometimes hits the next string down from that ( in this case, the g string ). This adds an affect you can hear very clearly when Kurt builds his power chords from the E string. When Kurt builds his power chords on the A string though, he barres across and usually hits the B string, making the chord overall a major chord.
In smells like teen spirits case, this means the chord progression actually goes like this:
F5 - BbMaj. - Ab5 - DbMaj.
No the chord progression you say is false. They are just power chords. Did you even listen to the song? There is obviously no D in his Bb chord nor an F in his Db chord. I tried to play that on my guitar and sounds awful.
You are absolutely right !
Just look at Kurt play... @Ben Gehre is absoutely right !
@@Patrick96322 dont look at what Kurt plays, but listen to the song. Music is audio. It looks like he is holding a major chord but it doesnt mean he's playing it.
Best comment I've read so far. That's the perfect analysis right there by @Ben Gehre. When i started playing guitar, I never took lessons. I covered Nirvana songs by watching all of their live videos and observing Kurt's playing very closely. And since i was sloppy in my initial days of playing and didn't know a lot of music theory, i would end up playing exactly like that and blow people's minds by getting the Nirvana effect.
This effect is best heard on Aneurysm. When he builds up an E string power chord. Kurt was the "let it rip" type. He wasn't very nuanced in his guitar playing which is what makes up his unique style!
6:48 That's not Breed that's In Bloom
who cares it’s obviously an accident
Was thinking that and scrolling to c if anyone noticed
Kurt was self taught. He literally made stuff up...and it worked. Creative Genius!
Creative and Gifted*
He wasn’t at all self taught he took piano lessons growing up and he had a guitar teacher as a teenager, he came from a family of musicians, and he had a Beatles song book
@@heidiherndon3890 Whatever....Nevermind
@@CrystalVideo9 lol nice
This is what I try to explain to people who say “Nirvana weren’t that good”.
I'm so high and this is way too deep
most sincere
God I wish I knew what any of this meant
You know, I was thinking the exact same thing and this is not my first video from this guy. I don't even know why am I watching them. :))
Don't worry kurt cobain didn't knew any of this either
came for a music lesson left with a philosophy lesson... love it
Kurt had perfect voice leading. If you take the melodies out of the context of rock and play them on the piano they sound really beautiful and very sophisticated. The influence of The Beatles especially John Lennon is undeniably there.
A thought for anyone who says "Kurt just played chords until he found something that sounded good.. and it worked for him, so therefore I don't need music theory"....
We weren't there when the songs were written so we have no concrete way of knowing exactly how Kurt's creative process worked. Maybe he was just an intuitive genius who stumbled onto brilliant creative chord progressions and matching melodies. Maybe he was influenced by another band member (Dave Grohl for example is a serious student of music). Maybe he found some older song transcriptions and repurposed the chord progressions and/or melody to his style. We don't know.
My point is... your brain might be tempted to tell you "music theory is for nerds, Kurt wrote brilliant music and he was just messing around." There's no way of even verifying that premise, and --- even if it is true --- I think clinging to it is just a cop out for the lazy who wish to believe that they can achieve greatness by just casually messing around on their instrument. Hey, maybe you can. But I can't see the downside of acquiring new knowledge and expanding your capabilities; and I would encourage you to look very skeptically on any idea that might dissuade you from doing so.
I think Kurt spent his early days jamming, figuring out what kind of vibe various chord progressions evoke and then used those in his songs later. A lot of his songs use the same core themes. Knowing the kind of person he was and his philosophy, it was without a doubt done intuitively and not through an application of theory.
Kurt's music was not what would be classically considered great. Listen to his solos, they're objectively garbage. But the raw nature, his voice, his sincerity and angst translate into something greater than the sum of its parts. It is possible to make great music through intuition without a knowledge of theory. Nonetheless, music theory, like any other form of theoretical knowledge, can give you the tools to explore new opportunities and form more complex compositions.
There were a few ways of verifying that he had virtually no grasp on music theory.
First was self admission. He said that he’d write songs and lyrics almost half hazardly and at the last minute. Dave Grohl said in an interview protesting the reality music shows that the way to become famous is to form a band even though you all suck.
Kurt was immensely pressured fame and realized that he was at his creative limit. A song like Rape Me was just Smells Like Teen Spirit with a different chord progression and tempo. The time signature and rhythm were identical and the lyrics were lacklustre. Senseless Apprentice l, Radio Friendly Unit Shifter, Tourette’s, and Milk It were just incoherent noise. Heart Shaped Box, Pennyroyal Tea were ok. Francis Farmer will have her Revenge on Seattle and All Apologies were almost cries for help.
The other band members got good after Nirvana. Kris just followed along with root chords 90% of the time and Dave did a good harmony and was a decent drummer but had few writing credits for Nirvana.
Dave’s proto-Foo-Fighters song Marigold was an extremely simple harmony with himself and the first Foo Fighters album didn’t stray very far from Nirvana and Grunge in general with the exception of a few more melodic pieces like For All the Cows and Big Me.
Dave taught himself to play the drums and i’m sure he did the same for guitar
I understand both sides of the argument. I purposely didn't learn theory until I'd already been writing songs for a while - and I think that worked out for the best. I'm not limited to stumbling around in the dark OR writing everything mathematically.The two things can compliment each other. That's just me though. Everyone's different and being judgmental is silly. It's all subjective.
Zach Taylor
I agree, but the main thing is composing is not looking outside like this guy on the video says, but the exactly opposite!!
composing is looking INSIDE, is an introspective thing, that's why the beginning of this video is totally BS!! all the "social changes" blah blah blah... when you create you go to your private unique universe, and you build your own world... Kurt never thought of any of that BS while he was creating a song.
besides many ppl think Nirvana songs are simple just because they are easy to play; that's Faaaraway from the truth!!
a simple song is _Stand by Me_ that's a simple song, a G circle (boring to me) with no modulations, alterations, zero... it's plain G E C D zzz
if Nirvana's music would be written, it would be full of b and #, and changes of key, different key signatures, chromatic stuffs all the time, dense harmony, rich harmony, heavy harmony (don't know the exact word)
to have all this elements (and more) and make it sounds fresh and easy to listen, that's the Genius part.
Mozart 40th symp. is also easy to listen, but it's not simple at all... is very complex.
I always thought Cobain was a musical genius. He had this ability to change keys in the middle of a song, sometimes in the middle of a riff, which was so fluid and effortless that no musician can match him in that regard. That, and he was a melodic genius as well.
This explanation is spot on. Basic example for this technique are Smells and Rape me.
He didn't know squat about music theory. He just randomly put chords together until something sounded good to him. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. He didn't know the chord names he used. He labeled them chord 1, chord 2..... with crudely drawn chord diagrams either at the top or bottom of the lyric sheet. There wasn't anything genius about his song writing. That's the best way to do it. Right stuff you like if somebody else likes it cool. If not oh well they can sit and spin on it. Remember the anagram K.I.S.S. or keep it simple stupid if you play live you have to play that shit.
@@DiegoMartinez-wo7tw I'm telling the truth your the stupid one.. Prove me wrong in the HBO documentary about Kurt made by his daughter they showed his notebooks. He labeled them 1,2,3.... over crude drawings. The man himself admitted to not knowing music theory its not hard to play random chords until something sounds good to you.
@@DiegoMartinez-wo7tw the musician decides you write for you not someone else. A G-C-D chord progression sounds good regardless of the fact you know why it does. Doesn't matter if you don't know it's a I-IV-V chord progression. The blues chord progression. Try it if you know theory don't use it just play till something tickles your pickle. 8 different keys doesn't matter if it's a not a chord doesn't matter. James Hetfield doesn't even know the notes across the guitar neck (Kurt didn't either) never stopped him from writing good songs.
@@DiegoMartinez-wo7tw you know music has no rules right? They're more like guidelines. The music theory police won't arrest you if you play a D flat in the key of G. So you got butt hurt because I said it's all right to not know music theory and not to over complicate things. I bet you don't even play just another Cobain fanboy that thought his untalented ass hung the moon. Kurt played punk rock guitar Barre chords and heavy distortion. He knew the shapes couldn't tell you which chord he was playing but he knew the major chord shapes. Another words put this finger here this one here etc..... . If you write for the masses you'll end up being the next Beyonce or Lady Ga Ga. Can Stephanie write does she know music theory? Yes but what does she do? Shakes her tits and ass in a meat dress to a generic hip hop beat repeating the same terrible hook over and over.
Best quote: "Even nihilism has it's formulas"
Ha - and did!
1. Outcasted
2. Careless
3. Unprofessional
4. Experimental
Yes
Ocue
if kurt saw this, he would laugh his ass off
I did
Bet he'd watch the whole thing though.
He definitely would have found this amusing. He did not put this much thought into it or intend for it to be analyzed like this. He sat and wrote these songs on his guitar, humming or mumbling a melody until he thought it sounded right and then would start working on the lyrics. He for sure wasn't thinking about music theory or changing a minor chord to a major through his singing over that particular note. I'm glad this video exists, though.
Jeff Watson exactly!!!!
A. Graham oh did you write songs with Kurt lol
Hey, man. I know this is an old video, and nobody will see this, including the author of the video, but Kurt was in a school band, and anyone in a school band will attest to the fact that you can't be in band if you can't read music a little bit. I appreciate the effort put into this video and think a lot of what you said is super valid, but that part should get a rethink.
Underrated comment
I find just being able to count helps!?🤔
"It's not even a chord it's an interval." Mad me laugh so hard Lol
I have a good hypothesis for your Bb major chord in Smells like teen spirits. The Major third is actually a frequency present in the sound of the guitar because of the distortion. Distortion adds a lot of overtone and increases the volume of the overtones. The major third is a pretty early note in the overtone series, which explains why you hear it in a chord that only has the root and fifth.
Laura JD Fan huh! Never thought about it like that. You might be right!
Or it is because Cobain actually plays the major third sometimes as he places his fingers so that his ring finger barres the fifth, the octave, and sometimes the major third.
true
It's most likely just from the parallel F major key.
Hi. Just watch carefully at Cobain's fingers. He uses just one finger to do chords like F and B, so that's why it sounds like that. Most noticeable on "Dumb" and "Rape Me"
I think that what made Nirvana was the lack of so called 'musical education' which allows for going places that education would tell you was wrong.
Agreed :)
I agree, too, to a certain degree. But Cobain also listened to so much music, he might have had the knowledge unconsciously. That means he realized there was "something" happening without having the technical knowledge about it. He was a very smart guy, at least when it comes to music.
Music theory doesn't really limit you to write anything you want. You can explain everything in music in someway or the other by it. Also not knowing anything about music theory doesn't necessarily limit people to write anything. Some people can have great ear, trained their musicality by listening a lot of music and so on.
Learning music theory greatly expanded what I could do. It describes, not prescribes. Like reading more makes you a better writer (expanding vocabulary and introducing tropes and themes), learning music theory allows you to describe and manipulate your music to bring out more creativity.
@@Holistic-songwriting It's all been done before in classical music.
I have no idee what you are talking about. Yet I see the whole video.
5:46
"Through his melody, he turns an e flat power chord (which should be a minor chord) into a major chord, thereby changing its gender... and yes it would be really amazing if he did that purposefully as some kind of statement on gender fluidity or sexuality"
what the fuck
It makes sence once you watch it a second time lmao
Nirvana: heavy, melodic, great lyrics and a lot of screams.
For me it’s dark,creative,inspiring
I remember playing Nirvana on the guitar all the time when I was younger, and then having trouble transitioning to bar chords as I moved on to other bands. I admire how Kurt juiced out so much melody from power chords. Playing Nirvana with bar chords completely changes their sound for the worse, I believe. It really confines the sound and impairs the melodies. I genuinely think the way he unified the simplistic limitations of power chords with the most succulent melodies was genius. It's incredibly difficult to sound distinctive with such basic tools, but he managed it.
I did do this:
1.angst
2. youth
3. disillusioned
4. distrust
We are a bit different
I don't know if anyone else has mentioned but the unplugged album gives an even bigger insight into his chords. Good video thanks.
This is by far the best video I've seen about his songwriting. I definitely love it when educated people like you understand and appreciate Kurt's music. I find it totally amazing that a guy like him who "technically" knew nothing about music wrote such brilliant songs. Personally, I owe him a lot for what he did, for the impact that he had on me. It's a gift that he lived.
Trent Reznor/ Nine Inch Nails next please. =)
exactly
Kurt did not need to be able to read music to make music, he simply felt it, resulting in something soulful and actually beautiful, in a way breaking music theory "rules" and yet sounding great.. He defined a his own type of music.. These strange progressions actually have a feeling and that's what its all about.. RIP you LEGEND
You forgot to mention what the genius of Cobain was. How he combined melodies from the beatles and other 60s pop hits to the power chord progressions that you lay down here. That's what made them so catchy.
These series are SO great. Thank you!
I should warn, though, there are some mistakes:
- at 6:48 , the video says it's Breed, but you're playing the verse of In Bloom
- at 7:49 the second chord of Drain You is C#, not C.
thank you, playing guitar while watching the video was driving me crazy
this shod probably be closer to the top of the video
Kurt lied about the lyrics being last minute and that he didn't know theory, he worked on all of the songs on Nevermind and the albums that followed for years before they were professionally recorded. He also knew music theory and even the names of all the chords and notes he was playing. His writing in his personal song notebooks details clear drawings of his chord progressions, along with the chord names and possible positional changes in each song, plus the lyrics. His whole "lazy" persona was just made up to boost his image as the "apathetic genius". He knew what he was doing.
Not saying this to diminish Cobain's genius in any way, but knowing the names of chords isn't the same as knowing music theory. Anyway I think most great composers write their music intuitively weather they know music theory or not.
Ryan you've brought enough reason now go and eat shit
He literally wrote the lyrics in 5 minutes and they often have no meaning
This is half true.
Hugh Jones he did a lot of cord leading and hummed or mumbled them. He’d pick words from his diary last minute. Often choosing contradictory phrases like afraid of never knowing fear
I like how people think they are interesting in the comment section saying "you are analysing too much, Kurt wasn't thinking about this....", stop saying that "it's only feeling", i'm sure these kinds of videos could help a lot of people, music is something you do at the moment, without thinking but you can learn it to. I like these kind of videos, it's really interesting and it helps a lot.
I approve.
You would be laughing your ass off at this video, and then you'd talk shit about it in a Rolling Stone article.
Holy shit you’re alive?!?
@@thatdamnguy9566 no he died after posting this comment 😔
You should do the Beatles next
01. Aberdeen
02. Punk
03. Who Cares
El Emilio angsty, raw, and simple.
punk= talentless
@@jeremydunn7444 but still great?
@@pietunuortimo2332 without a doubt
@@jeremydunn7444 punk wasn't created with the idea of talent in mind
Krist said “but I love him” talking in presence rather than past tense.
Poor guy just never excepted his death as the rest of us fans haven’t either
Dan and Lilly’s Beard Product Reviews Year late, but when we die, our energy carries on. This is especially true with loved musicians. Everytime we hear the music, we feel the energy from the time
Even though they’re from Aberdeen, WA. Not Seattle.
Grunge was a term coined by the mainstream. I’m sure no one involved in that subculture used that term.
They didn’t make it in Aberdeen Washington any more than Elvis made it in Tulepo Mississippi.
Sub Pop "coined" it.
The subculture coined that term (I think it might have been Mark Lanegan), and Kurt said he thought it suited their style of music.
Dude called me TF out when I didn't pause to think about Nirvana... Call me out, man... call me out
This is the first of your videos I've seen, and I have to say I really dig it. There's so many videos about playing and technique, it's cool to see someone approach the writing side of pop music. Looking forward to checking out more videos!
One of the few channels that I know I have to set aside some time, hit pause constantly, and take notes. You are a swell fellow FF.
He’s a bomb ass guitarist. His home records show proof how he was a foundation to all hit songs.
JOHN FRUSCIANTE pleaseee!
9:58 Kurt Cobain's moving-up-a-minor-third trick reminds me of why some people say that they're "worried learning music theory will stifle originality and creativity."
While it is true that a lot of people might not think to borrow a chord outside of the key like that if they're strictly following more basic music theory, one thing to remember that music theory is just a tool. It helps us talk about, explain, and remember what we've seen in other songs and how we can repeat it or avoid it in our own.
In fact, we're talking about borrowing a chord outside the key with music theory terms. While these are considered more advanced topics, don't worry; they're just fancy names for "Doing something that we didn't think would normally work but it totally does," which is exactly what people who don't want to learn music theory want to do in the first place.
You're still allowed to use power chords and other weird combinations of notes if you learn music theory.
Why do I like the sound of this guys voice so much haha so satisfying
I swear I seen a documentary about ufo's with a person who narrarted the same freakin way but just older.
Elliott Smith please!
YESSS
Yeeeeszss!
Elliott Smith's changes are off the hook!!
yessss
Please please pleaaaaassee
Your voice is godly
He has an interesting accent. Is he Canadian?
I noticed his voice almost immediately, lol. This dude needs to be narrating documentaries and doing voice over work for movies and cartoons got dammit, lol. I swear a nature documentary or some science documentary would be fucking perfect for this dude. I also think he would be perfect as the wise old teacher or instructor in some Pixar or DreamWorks movie. As I'm typing this comment I have the video playing but can't see it and all I'm picturing is this guy as Poe's martial arts instructor, or as the grisled old blues guy training the animals in the movie Sing. It would be fucking cool if some movie exec or some agent stumbled across one of his video's and offered him some voice over work. He wouldn't be the first CZcamsr to be cast in a big Hollywood movie, fucking Anthony and Ian from Smosh were both in the Angry birds movie, and I know there were a few more CZcamsrs in other movies, I just can't remember who and what movies right now.
I'm rather hearing a very slight German accent, predominantly in some of his L's, but also, to a lesser extent, in some other aspects of his voice.
German is correct ;) But thanks, y'all!
Ce cauti aici? :)))
pivoting between keys is totally authorial, there are so many ways to pivot. Kurt even pivots off of natural harmonics. So much ingenuity.
If you told him that he'd probably say "da fuq you talking about?"
this dude LOVES the sound of his own voice.
Season so far has been great Friedemann! Really dig the more theory intense stuff being discussed. Looking forward to Muse! What about a episode on The Beatles? They have very complex harmony at times, Lots of minor plagal cadences and let's not forget I am The Walrus.
Yeah, I would love to, but boy, I could do an entire season on the Beatles and there'd STILL be a ton of stuff to discuss.
Awesome video! I’d like to suggest St. Vincent
Heck Porter YESSSSS
power chords allow the listener to fill in the harmonic information..... my mind is actually blown, listener gets to add a layer of determining whether something is happy or sad or in between. I've always tried to do this with lyrics and wordplay, but doing that harmoincally is such a cool idea, especially when Curt was able to do that over and over again
after watching this, I had a seizure and forgot how to play grunge!
keep in mind the careful switching of chord genders, the postmodernist paradox embodied therein, and the relation between western harmonic counterpart and the mathematical propositions of Thucydides
@@datkinson1635 And the Music Theory Nerd Award goes to... //D Atikinson!
You need to do Queen!!!!!!!!!!! Please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I WAITED SO MUCH FOR THIS! Thank youuu
Answer:
Heroin and 4 power chords. End of video
I know so little of what the hell you are on about but still find it interesting to try to understand. Thank you for sharing this.
I think they just came up with some cool riffs and made it work. Do people really use theory when they when they write music? I never have. I just think of riffs in my head or noodle around until I do something that sounds good or gives me an idea. I don't think of chord progressions I just know where I want it to go. I just have to get it from my head to the fretboard.
I can see how theory could help if you are stuck but I feel it is better to think of what you want to hear rather than let theory dictate where you should go.
stimpson j cat Just depends on who you are. Some people base all of their music making on their theory knowledge and other base it on feeling. Both have pros and cons. Myself personally use a little bit theory to help me write.
Theory doesnt dictate what you should do. Knowing theory can make it actually easier to get the melodies out of your head. Melodies people sing will almost always fall inside a scale for the biggest part. Singing outside a scale takes practices. You have 12 notes on your instrument but singing a melody using all of them is really really hard.
stimpson j cat. You write entire songs worth chord progressions without understanding chord harmony and you keep everything in time?
@Marvin Bennett I am careful. I know what I am saying. I said: Theory doesnt dictate what you should do, so I am actually warning people that theory should not put a gun to their head to make them force where to go.
If people want to be scared of theory then that's their problem. You can certainly make good music without theoretic knowledge, but knowing some theory doens't make you worse. That's like saying: my english will get worse when I start learning grammar and vocabulary. I am also not saying that you should work your ass off and study it 2 hours a day everyday, but if you're interested in making music then I just don't understand why you would neglect it. Then you're just being selective and only choose to do what is fun. But we all know that staying in your comfort zone doesn't really bring progress.
stimpson j cat
music is feeling 100%
only when you need to solve something that it's already created, you can use theory.
Never in the creative process.
that's why jazz have no soul
If you could do ‘Tool’ would be great!
Please i need more of this kind of videos. You really helped me in terms of finding inspirations in songwriting. Thanks a million, Hollistic!
First video of yours I've watched, now I'm an instant fan. It's nice to watch a well-produced series for people who already know music theory. A lot of youtube content I've come across always takes its time explaining concepts to people who presumably know no music theory.
Captain Beefheart, let's make it happen.
This would be fascinating.
HELL YEAH!!!
WITH HIS LIL PISTOL SHOWIN
HIS LILL PISTULL TOW TIN
YES
Trout Mask would be a ride!
I'm a huge fan of nirvana and this video is amazing thank you so much for the video
As a musician who never learned music.. talking about music with so many concrete terms seems to just cage you into a "right way" and an "accepted way" to do things. I'm glad bands like Nirvana just wrote what sounded good to to their ear and didn't give a fuck... because honestly, applying classical music theory to something like Rock and Roll is like putting a rulebook on something super simple that doesn't need one. But I guess music majors need something to do :D
At school we were told a Maj7 chord sounded "bad". Turns out it's one of my favourite chords
EXACTLYYYYYYY, THATS HOW I WRITE AND EVERYONE ELSE HATES THAT I DO THAT BUT THEY HATE WRITING MUSIC AND I LOVE IT CUZ IT DOESNT TAKE MUXH THOUGHT, I JUST PLAY WHAT I FEEL. Glad yo see someone who feels the same way I do
Have you ever listened to Muse? Clearly not or you wouldn't say that
I mean it's more of just understanding it in an expository format of information which can allow people of different genres to also use those conventions in their own music
You're not a musician. Sorry to break it to you.
His use of the Tritone on In Utero is amazing
Pink Floyd please
YES YES YES NIRVANAAAAAA- u need to do Catfish and the Bottlemen as well 👌
Do bring me the horizon!! I don't even care what style of them you choose! Thank you for all the knowledge you spread too man
Pink Floyd!!!
PLEASE DO AN ELLIOTT SMITH EPISODE. This show is absolutely great.
Do one for Fleetwood Mac
João Vitor
Would be really cool!
Kurt wrote his melodies like a genius by accident.
By using notes and chords that weren't supposed to be used together Kurt proved there's more to learn than typical music theory
What's typical music theory?
Pixies. Please. Pixies.
death to the pixies
Fukc Yuo what why?
It's the name of a compilation album celebrating ten years of The Pixies.
what nirvana is doing in this is video is basically what the pixies were doing.
How about a Video about Rage against the Machine or (for all germans around here) Die Ärzte?
teach me your ways dude i literally want to know everything you do.
I'm glad Drain You made an appearance. I love the melody of that track
Really liked the video, first time seeing your channel. Subbed, definitely going to get some popcorn and binge watch your channel at some point. Typically, when I see people who can read script and are familiar with theory talk about Kurt, they talk about him as if he's an amateur simply because he didn't learn; I'm glad you were able to recognize his talents and explain them in an introspective way whilst remaining formal, rather than condescending.
Have you seen the 12tone video on In Bloom? Definitely worth a look if you haven't yet
Ben Cronk BLA BLA BLA PC , Starbucks
Liking 90's punk rock is equivalent to supporting the enforcement of 2018 branded political correctness?
1:12 Pro legalization of Mario-juana
:D
Marry-you-wanna
Hahaha
Sublime work. Brilliant.- why not focusing on The Doors?
Would love to see an analyzation like this on the Doors
Kurt wouldn't even know what you're talking about.
Please, please, please do The Mars Volta. I’d love to hear you break it down.
Weezer sometime? Maybe? Possibly?
Also: Pink Floyd / Pearl Jam / The Who
Just Allegro YES, PLEASE
definitely maybe
Just Allegro wheezer definitely uses some bizarre chord progressions. especially in the beginning of “Say It ain’t so”
Yes please so Weezer
Thirds relations always work with a tonic, whether the large (major) or small (minor) third. Thus, going from C to either A flat, A, E flat or E will work, as you will have at least one shared chord tone
As a musician I love your channel. Keep analyzing bands, and styles. Thanks dude.
despite your ideas of counter culture, grunge had existed before nirvana, and nirvana willingly signed to a major label.
nirvana was the end of counter culture
Alice in Chains!!
the chord in that part of come as you are are G5 to Bb5, as the song is written with the guitar one step down. (although it can easily be played by just dropping the E and A strings a step each)
Just discovered this channel today and it's brilliant
Wow now you're talking about gender? Can we please keep the faux-political junk out of Nirvana? You're nuking my childhood here.
Chords don't really have gender. Major/minor is really more of a mood (happy/sad) than a gender.
Who gives a shit who was around him at the time or what his stance on social issues was? This is a video about how he wrote music. He said most of his lyrics were fodder anyway, so the lyrical content only matters minimally. This clown on this channel is trying bring soy into Nirvana and it's not necessary. His stance on social issues had nothing to do with the random chord patterns he created. He wasn't a sophisticated musician and he wasn't thinking about gay people getting married when he transitioned from G#m to C#m on "Drain You" (or whatever song). He just did it. Fuck this guy and fuck this video. In his attempt to seem to identify with what "punk" and "counter-culture" is, he's gotten it backwards. This is the lamest video I've seen in a while, seriously.
KevvyLava Awesome
Oh no your precious childhood lol
KevvyLava who hurt you
this season is turning out to be amazng! do something on Muse
There is one for Muse, if you haven't seen it already by now :)
Excelent video! Keep up the job..! You couldnt explain everything better!! Good speech and perfect speaking, clear and finally i found your video because nobody knows about original style of power chords and his unique way to make legendaries songs. And i know for the most part the meanins of them. So some of them you can give the meaning from your point of view.
S01E01 How lazy music critics and journalists keep getting the Nirvana story wrong.
In my opinion, you have missed some fairly obvious points here and misconstrued others -- following the traditional narrative of the Nirvana story told after the fact. Having lived on the west coast during this time I can tell you the common tale of Nirvana wasn't what we saw happening in the media, on MTV, ect... until Nevermind hit big an the labels needed to figure out what to do with this whole 'college rock' / 'alternative' *DEMOGRAPHIC* -- how to package and sell what they had spent the past decade doing their best to relegate to the margins of society (what you later call the 'counter culture', I suppose).
#1 Nirvana was NOT a Seattle band. They came from the tiny logging of Aberdeen -- a small town with blue color/working class values, as far physically and culturally from Seattle as Stockholm is from.. well some unknown fishing village 50 miles away. Nirvana's political leanings came much more from Olympia and Evergreen college, a place that exemplifies the inclusiveness, politically correct, feminist leanings that you misunderstand for the macho, misogynistic, careerist Seattle scene. Nirvana was NOT welcomed to the Seattle scene, BARELY made it on sub-pop where they were forced to release a COVERED SINGLE to get on the label (they would have preferred K records), and were known as the least likely band from 'the Seattle scene' to succeed (read the oral history of Grunge -- this was a commonly accepted opinion from other signed/popular Seattle musicians who had never heard of this oddball, backwoods Melvins inspired band). Look at the other bands that came out of the scene -- Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Mudhoney, STP, Pearl Jam (who Nirvana openly despised) ect -- they share very little in common with Nirvana's style or politics... they were just loud and generally could only trace their taste back to some of the same bands. Or put more succinctly - they disliked the same bands which is the worst form of communion. This doesn't put them in the same category, it was just an easy way for mainstream media to market what was a far more diverse scene than people understand (listen to Beat Happening, Bikini Kill, ect to get an idea).
#2 Nirvana wasn't a Grunge band. See #1. Nirvana hated the label and all the male chauvinism, redneck ignorance, and slackerism went along with it. They never owned the word and when you compare them to bands that DID consider themselves 'grunge', you will see glaring stylistic and political differences. They never called themselves a *punk* band either. Kurt tried to let the music speak for itself which was painfully obvious in his strained relationship with mainstream media.
#3 Counter-culture. Well, yeah they were. But so were a hundred other late eighties punk and post punk bands that inspired Nirvana but never made it like they did (the Melvins, the Meat Puppets, Butthole Surfers, THE PIXIES (**see next**), ect ect ). Being counter culture in 1988 was pretty easy - -the dominant culture was so pathetic, commodified, and worn out -- all you had to do was dress down or all black, play anything but 4/4, maybe throw in a minor chord where a music snob would say it doesn't fit, and maybe have some loudness dynamics ... AND ON TO THE PIXIES...
#4 You put a LOT of weight and consideration on Cobain's use of 1 1/2 step changes as if he was just fumbling around, found them, and that became his sound. The problem is, this is a signature sound of another late 80s band that Kurt idolized, The Pixies, a band who he was quoted saying Smells Like T S was an attempt to emulate/rip off. Add that to the LOUD-quiet-LOUD dynamic, obscure and disconcerting lyrics, punk roots with pop sensibilities, and you'll see that ALL of Nevermind can be traced back to the Pixies' style (among many others of course), but the pop sensibility is what separated Nevermind from Bleach and catapulted it into the stratosphere. The fact that Kurt makes no attempt to hide this 'influence' should make you take a very close look at the Pixies song structures and see how they informed Kurt's own unique evolving style. THAT would be an interesting video on music theory and comparative styles. Oh, and one other thing to look up. Steve Albini.
I don't mean to trash your video - I think it does a fair job of explaining how Cobain, as a single guitarist using power chords (albeit non-traditional ones) was able to create a wholly unique and enduring legacy/album (notice how he added 2 guitarist as soon as he could - his was a style of necessity).
However I think that you perpetuate some commonly debunked ideas of where Nirvana came from (geographically, culturally and politically), how they *didn't* fit in with the Seattle scene, Sub Pop or Grunge, and where they certainly got much of the musical and lyrical inspiration of Nevermind from.
I'm not gonna read that but I'm gonna ride it
THIS is the smartest comment on the video
I think this comment is one of the most clever pieces of information I have read on CZcams, I quote every word in that and the general "I'm not thrashing you dude, but…" attitude.