Heart Shaped Box Guitar Lesson – Nirvana
In this quick Heart Shaped Box guitar lesson video, I will show you all of Kurt Cobain's guitar parts to this much loved Nirvana classic note-for-note.
You will need to tune your guitar to dropped "C#" tuning, which is basically a guitar tuned a half-step down that then has the 6th string lowered another full-step. The exact notes will be starting from the 6th string (C# G# C# F# A# D#) or if your tuner displays flats instead of sharps you will tune to the notes (Db Ab Db Gb Bb Eb). Either way those are the same exact notes.
Kurt Cobain takes full advantage of this lower tuning to create guitar riffs that are deep and ethereal sounding, especially during the intro and verse sections.
The intro and verse riff employs simple chord shapes that are arpeggio picked. The picking Cobain uses isn't very strict throughout the song so you shouldn't be either. I will show you the standard way that he plays it and other ways he might randomly vary it during the song so you can do your own thing with it as well.
During the chorus you will be playing those full power chords while throwing in some bends as well. The difference in feel between the bends and the chords can be a little challenging to get right, but if you lock into the groove you should get it down pretty quickly.
Kurt Cobain's guitar solo is a simple repeated melodic phrase that moves down the fretboard using bends and some pull-offs. It is very short but compliments the song very well, as do many of Cobain's guitar solos.
Hope you guys can get this one down quickly!
Carl...
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