Nirvana - The Man Who Sold The World - Guitar Lesson

About The Man Who Sold The World

Nirvana's cover of this David Bowie track, recorded live for their MTV Unplugged set in 1993, is one of the more deceptively tricky things to nail on guitar. The tuning is Eb Standard, so drop every string a half-step before you start, and the key is A minor, which gives the main riff a brooding, slightly modal quality. That riff is the core of the whole piece: a fingerpicked or hybrid-picked melodic line that sits low on the neck and needs to ring cleanly without rushing. At 96 BPM the tempo is moderate, but keeping the phrasing relaxed and slightly behind the beat is what actually makes it sound right, and that feel is easy to lose when you are first learning it. Use the Practice Toolbar to loop the riff slowed down until the fretting hand can move cleanly between positions without squeezing too hard. Nirvana played this as an acoustic number, so tone here comes from touch and dynamics rather than distortion, which means any sloppiness in the fretting is fully exposed. If you play Grunge regularly, this is a useful exercise in restraint.

• The song is played in Eb Standard tuning, so all six strings need to be tuned down one half-step from standard.
• The signature riff relies on clean melodic fretting with no distortion, making precise left-hand placement the main technical challenge.
• Practising the main riff with the Practice Toolbar looped and slowed will help lock in the relaxed, slightly behind-the-beat phrasing.