Nirvana - The Nirvana Guitarchive guitar tab

CHORD CHARTS

1) Power Chords

2) Major Chords

3) Minor Chords

TABULATURE DEFINITION

TUNINGS

SOME NOTES ON FEEDBACK AND NOISEMAKING

1)BLEACH

Blew

Floyd The Barber

About A Girl

School

Love Buzz

Paper Cuts

Negetive Creep

Scoff

Swap Meet

Mr. Moustache

Siftings

Big Cheese

Downer

2)NEVERMIND

Smells Like Teen Spirit

In Bloom

Come As You Are

Breed

Lithium

Polly

Territorial Pissings

Drain You

Lounge Act

Stay Away

On A Plain

Something In The Way

3)INCESTICIDE

Dive

Sliver

Stain

Turnaround

Been A Son

Molly's Lips

Son Of A Gun

(New Wave) Polly

Beeswax

Downer

Mexican Seafood

Hairspray Queen

Aero Zeppelin

Big Long Now

Aneurysm

4) IN UTERO

Serve The Servents

Scentless Apprentice

Heart Shaped Box

Rape Me

Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle

Dumb

Very Ape

Milk It

Pennyroyal Tea

Radio Friendly Unit Shifter

Tourette's

All Apologies

5) MTV UNPLUGGED IN NEW YORK

Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam

The Man Who Sold The World

Plateau

Oh, Me

Lake Of Fire

Where Did You Sleep Last Nighgt

6) B-SIDES AND RARITIES

Baba O' Riley

Beans

Blandest

Curmudgeon

D7

Do You Love Me

Endless, Nameless

Even In His Youth

Formaldehyde

Gallons Of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through The Strip

Help Me, I'm Hungry

Here She Comes Now

If You Must

I Hate Myself And Want To Die

Junkyard

Marigold

Misery Loves Company

Moist Vagina

Oh, The Guilt

Opinion

Pen Cap Chew

Return Of The Rat

Spank Thru

Talk To Me

The Money Will Roll Right In

Token Eastern Song

Verse Chorus Verse

CHORD CHARTS

This is basically all the chords used in this book (and more) put in

tabulature form. I did this for the sake of people who don't know how

to read chords, or don't have a chord book.

1) Power Chords

E5 F5 F#5 G5 G#5 A5 A#5 B5 C5 C#5 D5 D#5

|----------------------------------------------------------------------|

|--------------------------------------------------------------3-------|

|------9--------10--------------------2---3---4---5---6---7----2---8---|

|-2----9---3----10---4---5---6---7----2---3---4---5---6---7-or-0---8---|

|-2-or-7---3-or--8---4---5---6---7-or-0---1---2---3---4---5--------6---|

|-0--------1---------2---3---4---5-------------------------------------|

2) Major Chords (bar chords except for F not included)

E F G A B C D

|-0---1---3---0---2---0---2-|

|-0---1---0---2---4---1---3-|

|-1---2---0---2---4---0---2-|

|-2---3---0---2---4---2---0-|

|-2---3---2---0---2---3-----|

|-0---1---3-----------0-----|

3) Minor Chords

Em Fm Gm Am Bm Cm Dm

|-0---1---3---0---2---3---1-|

|-0---1---3---1---3---4---3-|

|-0---1---3---2---4---5---2-|

|-2---3---0---2---4---5---0-|

|-2---3-------0-------------|

|-0---1---------------------|

TUNINGS

Standard Tuning: E A D G B E

How To Get It: Tune the low E string to a tuner or another guitar

Tune the A string to the 5th fret of the low E string

Tune the D string to the 5th fret of the A string

Tune the G string to the 5th fret of the D string

Tune the B string to the 4th fret of the G string

Tune the high E string to the 5th fret of the B string

Down 1/2 Step: Eb Ab Db Gb Bb Eb

How To Get It: Tune the 6th fret of the E string to the A string

Retune the rest of the guitar as in standard tuning

Down A Whole Step: D G C F A D

How To Get It: Tune the 7th fret of the E string to the A string

Retune the rest of the guitar as in standard tuning

Drop D: D A D G B E

How To Get It: Tune the 7th fret of the low E string to the A string

Alt. Tuning 1: D A D G B F

How To Get It: Tune the 7th fret of the low E string to the A string

Tune the high E string to the 6th fret of the B string

Alt. Tuning 2: Eb Ab Db Gb B E

How To Get It: Tune the first 4 strings down 1/2 step

Leave the last 2 strings in standard tuning

SOME NOTES ON FEEDBACK AND NOISEMAKING

When It came to making noise using nothing but his guitar, Kurt Cobain was

a geinus. In fact, IMHO, the only person who I have seen make BETTER noise

would have to be Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth. It would impossible to

accuratly re-create alot of the sounds that Kurt achives with his guitar

(ie. Endless Nameless, Radio Friendly Unit Shifter, Gallons...), since

alot of it was improvised. This is why this book may actually be better than

published tabs...they actually try to tab noise jams like the RFUS outro and

the Scentless Apperentice solo, and it is very frustrating when you are doing

exactly what the book tells you and it still sounds wrong. My solution to

this problem: create your own feedback.

As you may or may not know, feedback is that ringing noise that occurs when

you play at a high volume, or play too close to the amp, or leave your guitar

sitting next to the amp when it is still turned on. There is some scientific

explination for this, like it makes the coils in the pickups vibrate, or

something like that. Basically, it occurs in strange situations when you

don't want it, but when you DO want it it is a pain in the ass to get!

There are several techniques that I use that produce decent feedback/noise.

One is bending. I find that if you do a double bend on your high E and B

strings anywhere above the 10th fret (as you see in Endless Nameless), it

will be loud and ring, and (if you're lucky) echo.

Another is harmonics. Feedback will usually occur instantly when you strike

a high pitched harmonic. This is quite effective when you have to come up

with a certain pitched feedback, if you can remember which harmonics make

which pitches. It doesn't work as well with 12th and 7th fret harmonics,

though. If you want GOOD feedback, go for 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 9th fret

harmonics. Sometimes, depeniding on the kind of guitar you have, you will

be able to take harmonics above the pickups. If you are able to do this, go

for it, cause you can't really get any more high pitched than that!

One method I have seen Kurt do in concert (you can witness this before Breed

on the MTV Live And Loud vid) that is quite effective is tapping the back of

the neck. You should try hitting the upper neck with either your pick or

fingers, behind the first or second fret. If the destortion is high enough,

it will produce a cool sounding rumbling noise at first, then become

screeching feedback.

Another technique used in Oh The Guilt is picking the strings above the nut

or below the bridge. It produces various high-pitched rings, which produce

excellent feedback. However, the strings must be struck somewhat hard, or

the sound may not be picked up.

If you would like to use the natural approach, simply turn up the volume

on your amp. It will eventually start ringing, and as you move your guitar

around in different positions the pitch will change. If you're lucky,

you may actually be able to pick up radio stations with this method!

Two things you should be aware of when doing this are:

1) Feedback occurs much more readily when the pickups are facing away

from the amp. An easy thing to do is take off your guitar and place it

up against the cabinet with the strings facing outward. This would save

lots of waiting.

2) Different pickups create different pitch feedback. You may want to try

using your pickup switch, especially if you have a strat or a strat

imitation. This can produce anything from a low growl to a high scream.

Again, you should expariment on your own.

There are various other noisemaking methods...so many that I will not be able

to list them all. Two that must not be ignored, however, are the whammy bar

and the pick scrape.

The whammy bar is probably the most useful tool in producing noise. What it

is is a bar attached to the bridge of the guitar which, when depressed,

lowers the pitch of the strings by raising the bridge. You can hear this in

action at the end of Stay Away, where Kurt drops the strings as far as they

go, raises them, and drops them again and again. However, dropping the pitch

of the strings is only one use for the whammy bar, as it can be used to make

exaggerated vibratos and other such noises. Depending on what model guitar

you have, the whammy bar will be built differently. On strat models, the

bridge is pretty well attached to the guitar, and the bar will only be able

to lower the pitch. However, on Ibanezes, the bridge is just sorta floating

there, so the whammy bar can be used both ways...raising AND lowering the

pitch. There is really not a hell of lot I can say about HOW to use this as

it isn't a very complicated tool. (It has two positions...up and down.

How much more simple can it be??) You hould just fool around with your own

and get familiar with it and the noises it can make and soon you will be able

to produce decent noise with it.

Pick scrapes are very underrated, as they seem to produce one kind of noise.

Actually, there are many things you can do with pick scrapes aside from just

scraping the low E or A strings and making the same old usual sound. One is

scraping actually above the pickups (which Kurt does at the end of Heart

Shaped Box) which produces a more high pitched sound. Another is using the

same top to bottom method on your higher strings (B and high E). Or you

could just scrape all the strings over the pickups. This is another method

that must be exparimented with so that you can come up sounds that you like.

Of course there are various other methods that Kurt used that I'm not going

to get into, basically because my knowledge of feedback and noisemaking is

very limited compared to his. However, this should provide you with somewhat

of a guide so that you too can make noise with your guitar!

TABULATURE DEFINITION

What all the little symbols in the tab mean...

)=Bend

/=slide

~~=vibrato

^=hammeron/pulloff

PM=Palm mute

*=uncontrolled feedback

xx=pick scrape

NH=Natural Harmonic

+=Tremelo Pick

)=Unison Bend

)

|=ghost bend

|=ghost bend and release

@@@@@=Smash Guitar :)

BLEACH

1)Blew

Alt. Tuning 1

Intro:

4: 0 0 3 5 6 6 5 3 3 0 5/6 6

5: 0 0 3 5 6 6 5 3 3 0 5/6 6

6: 0 0 3 5 6 6 5 3 3 0 5/6 6

Verse:

1: 0 0

2: 0 0

3: )( 0 0

4: 3 5 5 5 5 (5) 5 3/5 5 3~~~ 53/5 5 53/5 5

5: 5

6:0 0 0 0

Chorus:

4: 3 5 5 5 3 3 3 5 5 5 3 6

5: 3 5 5 5 3 3 3 5 5 5 3 6

6: 3 5 5 5 3 3 3 5 5 5 3 6

play 3x then:

4: 3 5 5 5 3 3 3 5 5 5 3 3 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7

5: 3 5 5 5 3 3 3 5 5 5 3 3 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7

6: 3 5 5 5 3 3 3 5 5 5 3 3 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7

Solo:

(In standard tuning; I haven't figured it out in the alt. tuning yet)

) )( )(

2:10 10 (10) 10 10 10 10 8 0 8 10 10 (10)

) (

2:10~~~10 10 10 10 8 0 8 10

3: 8 10 8 10

2:10/13 12~~ (12) 12/15 15 15/17 17 15

2: 18 (18) 18 18 18 (18)18 (18)18

3:15 15 (18) (18) (18)

2:(18) 18 18 (18)18~~~~18~~~~~18 16

3:(18) (18) (18)

2:1615 1513 15 13^15^13^0 11/12 13 13~

2:11

3: 1211 11 9 10 10 10 8 10 10 10 8

2:

3: 8 8 10 10 8 8 10

4:108 0 8 10 10 8 10 10

2: 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11

3:10 10

"you can do anything"

6:0 0 3 5 5 6 5

play that 1x then

6:0 3 5 5 5 5

play that twice then

6:0 3 5 5 5 5/