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Guitar Songs, Tabs & Lessons

Nirvana

25 guitar songs · Tabs, Lessons & Tone Guide Grunge

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Come As You Are - Guitar Tab Guitar Tab

Come As You Are - Guitar Tab

YouTube Stats: 1.9M · 30K

Mr. Tabs Guitar Tab
Smells Like Teen Spirit - Guitar Tab Guitar Tab

Smells Like Teen Spirit - Guitar Tab

YouTube Stats: 1.8M · 25K

Mr. Tabs Guitar Tab
Something in the Way - Guitar Lesson Guitar Lesson

Something in the Way - Guitar Lesson

YouTube Stats: 744K · 12K

GuitarLessons365SongLessons Guitar Lesson
Smells Like Teen Spirit - Guitar Cover Guitar Cover

Smells Like Teen Spirit - Guitar Cover

YouTube Stats: 1.4M · 32K

Kfir Ochaion Guitar Cover

Band Overview

History and Guitar Legacy

Nirvana emerged from Aberdeen, Washington in 1987 and transformed mainstream rock with their 1991 album Nevermind. Fronted by Kurt Cobain as singer, songwriter, and sole electric guitarist, the band distilled punk aggression, pop melody, and raw emotional intensity into a style that remains one of the most influential entry points for electric guitarists. Their approach borrowed the loud-quiet-loud dynamic structure from the Pixies, creating an accessible yet powerful guitar foundation.

Playing Style and Techniques

Cobain's approach combined deceptively simple elements: open power chords, intentionally sloppy strumming, and masterful use of distortion as expression. His rhythm playing featured Punk Rock looseness where imperfect fret work was entirely deliberate. Lead work in songs like Heart-Shaped Box and Drain You prioritized melody over complexity, often doubling vocal lines. He employed controlled feedback, string ringing against distortion, and aggressive downpicking attack. This style proves technical virtuosity isn't required for iconic riffs.

Why Guitarists Study Nirvana

Cobain demonstrated that tone, dynamics, and energy matter more than speed or complexity. As Nirvana's only guitarist alongside bass and drums, his parts carry the entire harmonic weight, making Nirvana songs particularly rewarding to learn. You cover the full guitar arrangement with one instrument. Songs like Smells Like Teen Spirit and In Bloom use basic power chord shapes accessible to beginners, yet achieving authentic feel requires genuine practice and understanding of dynamic control.

Difficulty and Learning Path

Nirvana offers a natural progression for learners. True beginner songs include Polly, Something in the Way, and About a Girl. Intermediate tracks like Breed, Drain You, and Lounge Act require solid downpicking stamina and dynamic control. The MTV Unplugged session showcases Cobain's underrated fingerpicking and clean tone chord voicings, adding another dimension. This range makes Nirvana essential study for understanding how tone and raw energy drive impactful guitar playing.

What Makes Nirvana Essential for Guitar Players

  • Cobain's aggressive downpicking on tracks like Breed and In Bloom demands serious right-hand stamina. He rarely alternate-picked during distorted rhythm sections, giving his attack a heavier, more percussive feel that defines the grunge sound.
  • The loud-quiet-loud dynamic is central to Nirvana's guitar approach. Songs like Smells Like Teen Spirit and Lithium require you to control the shift between clean, gently strummed verses and full-blast distorted choruses, mastering your volume knob and pickup selector mid-song is key.
  • Cobain frequently used unconventional chord voicings, including open-string dissonances and chromatic movement within power chord progressions. Heart-Shaped Box features a riff that moves between clean arpeggios with open strings ringing and heavy power chords, making it an excellent study in contrast and texture.
  • The MTV Unplugged performance reveals Cobain's fingerpicking and strumming nuance on acoustic guitar. All Apologies and Lake Of Fire showcase his ability to keep bass notes droning while picking melody notes on higher strings, a folk-influenced technique that balances perfectly against Nirvana's electric intensity.
  • Palm-muting plays a crucial role in songs like Come As You Are and Lounge Act, where Cobain uses it to create rhythmic tension before releasing into open chords. Learning to control the pressure of your palm against the bridge while maintaining consistent alternate picking is a core Nirvana skill.

Did You Know?

Kurt Cobain often bought cheap pawn shop guitars because he smashed them on stage so frequently. His favorite Fender Mustangs cost him around $50–75 each in the late '80s, instruments that now sell for thousands as vintage pieces.

The iconic opening riff of Come As You Are was played through a Small Clone chorus pedal, one of only a handful of effects Cobain used regularly. He favored its simplicity over more complex chorus units.

Cobain's guitar on Smells Like Teen Spirit was tracked through a Mesa/Boogie Studio .22 preamp into a Crown power amp during the Nevermind sessions, not the cranked Marshall stack most people assume. Producer Butch Vig layered multiple takes to achieve that massive wall of distortion.

For the Unplugged session, Cobain played a 1959 Martin D-18E, an extremely rare acoustic-electric guitar. He had a Bartolini pickup installed for the performance. That guitar later sold at auction for over $6 million in 2020.

Cobain designed the Fender Jag-Stang himself by cutting photos of a Fender Jaguar and a Fender Mustang in half and combining them. Fender produced the hybrid guitar for him in 1993, and it remains in production as a signature model.

Many of Nirvana's guitar parts were recorded in very few takes. Cobain disliked the polished sound of overdubs and preferred the raw energy of early takes, which is why the guitar tracks on In Utero (produced by Steve Albini) sound so live and unprocessed.

The solo in Smells Like Teen Spirit is essentially the vocal melody played on guitar, Cobain's deliberate anti-solo philosophy. He once said he'd rather write a memorable melodic hook than play fast scales, and this approach influenced an entire generation of rock guitarists.

Essential Albums for Guitarists

Nevermind album cover
Nevermind 1991

The definitive Nirvana album for learning guitar. Smells Like Teen Spirit, In Bloom, and Breed will build your downpicking endurance and dynamic control, while Lithium and Drain You teach you the art of shifting between clean and distorted tones within a single song. The polished production makes every guitar part easy to hear and transcribe.

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In Utero album cover
In Utero 1993

Steve Albini's raw production strips away the studio gloss, exposing Cobain's guitar tone in its most honest form. Heart-Shaped Box is a masterclass in combining clean arpeggios with crushing distortion, Rape Me explores open-chord dynamics, and Sappy (on later reissues) features one of Cobain's most satisfying crunchy rhythm tones. Essential for understanding how to get power from simplicity.

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MTV Unplugged in New York album cover
MTV Unplugged in New York 1994

A completely different side of Nirvana's guitar work. All Apologies, Dumb, Pennyroyal Tea, and Polly showcase Cobain's acoustic technique, open chord voicings, subtle fingerpicking, and dynamic strumming. Lake Of Fire (a Meat Puppets cover) features a surprisingly bluesy lead break. This album is perfect for intermediate players looking to refine their acoustic touch and clean-tone phrasing.

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Bleach album cover
Bleach 1989

Nirvana's debut is heavier and more punk-influenced than their later work. About a Girl shows Cobain's Beatles-influenced pop sensibility with a clean two-chord verse, while Blew and School are built on grinding, drop-D power chord riffs that will toughen up your fretting hand. The lo-fi production captures the band's garage-rock energy and is great for players who want to explore raw, unprocessed distortion tones.

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Tone & Gear

Guitar

Fender Mustang (various years, typically left-handed models) was Cobain's go-to for much of Nirvana's career, he loved its short 24-inch scale length, which made string bending easier and gave it a slightly muddier, thicker tone than a standard Fender. He also frequently used Fender Jaguars (often modified with humbuckers in the bridge position), a Fender Jag-Stang he co-designed with Fender in 1993, and various cheap Univox and Mosrite copies found in pawn shops. During the Nevermind sessions, he used a '65 Fender Jaguar and a Fender Stratocaster on several tracks.

Amp

Cobain's live rig centered on Mesa/Boogie preamps (Studio .22 Preamp) paired with Crown power amps pushing a wall of 4x12 cabinets for clean headroom and massive volume. He also used Fender Twin Reverbs for cleaner tones and occasionally Marshall amps. During the In Utero tour, he ran a Mesa/Boogie Studio Preamp into Crown and Crest power amps. The Nevermind tones were largely achieved through the Mesa/Boogie preamp for saturation, giving that smooth-yet-aggressive midrange distortion rather than the scooped sound most people associate with the brand.

Pickups

Cobain regularly swapped out stock Fender single-coils for humbuckers to get a fatter, noisier signal with more output. His Jaguars and Mustangs often had DiMarzio Super Distortion or DiMarzio PAF humbuckers dropped into the bridge position, giving those typically bright offset guitars a thicker, grungier voice. The higher output of a humbucker hitting the front end of his Mesa preamp was critical to his overdriven tone, it pushed the gain stage harder and delivered that signature compressed, fuzzy sustain.

Effects & Chain

Cobain kept his pedalboard relatively sparse. His core effects were an Electro-Harmonix Small Clone chorus (heard prominently on Come As You Are and the clean sections of Smells Like Teen Spirit), a Boss DS-1 or DS-2 Turbo Distortion for the heavy sections (often used as a boost slamming into the already-cooking preamp), and a Tech 21 SansAmp for additional grit and tone shaping. He occasionally used an Electro-Harmonix Poly Chorus for wobblier, more extreme modulation. The signal chain was typically guitar → DS-1/DS-2 → Small Clone → SansAmp → amp. No reverb pedals, no delay, Cobain's tone was fundamentally dry, aggressive, and in-your-face.

Recommended Gear

Fender Stratocaster
Guitar

Fender Stratocaster

Cobain used the Stratocaster on several Nevermind tracks, leveraging its bright single-coils to cut through dense arrangements. Though less iconic than his Mustang, the Strat provided tonal clarity for melodic passages within Nirvana's heavy sonic framework.

Fender Twin Reverb
Amp

Fender Twin Reverb

Cobain deployed the Twin Reverb's clean headroom and natural breakup for softer verses and intros, creating dynamic contrast against his saturated Mesa preamp tones. The amp's warm response complemented his sparse, dry-focused signal chain.

DiMarzio Super Distortion
Pickup

DiMarzio Super Distortion

Cobain swapped DiMarzio humbuckers into his Jaguars and Mustangs to fatten their typically bright single-coils, pushing harder into his Mesa preamp for compressed, fuzzy sustain. This high-output bridge pickup was essential to Nirvana's thick, aggressive midrange distortion.

Boss DS-1 Distortion
Pedal

Boss DS-1 Distortion

The DS-1 functioned as Cobain's heavy-hitting boost pedal, slamming the front end of his already-overdriven Mesa preamp to intensify saturation during explosive chorus sections. Its gritty character helped define Nirvana's raw, in-your-face distortion tone.

Electro-Harmonix Small Clone
Pedal

Electro-Harmonix Small Clone

Cobain's signature chorus voice, heard prominently on Come As You Are and clean passages of Smells Like Teen Spirit, added subtle wobble and width. The Small Clone's lush modulation provided dynamic relief against his otherwise aggressive, compressed overdriven tones.

How to Practice Nirvana on GuitarZone

Every Nirvana song page on GuitarZone includes a built-in Practice Toolbar. No app to download, no account needed. Open any song, then use the toolbar to slow the video to 0.5× speed, set an A/B loop around the exact riff you're working on, and jump between song sections instantly.

The toolbar appears automatically on every guitar tab, lesson, and cover page. Pick a song below, hit play, and start practicing at your own pace.

Practice Come As You Are - Guitar TabPractice Smells Like Teen Spirit - Guitar TabPractice Smells Like Teen Spirit - Guitar Cover