I would like to get y'all's thoughts, and I'm not trying to start a Kurt Cobain fanboy or war thread. This thread is about guitar playing and soloing technique and I think it could be a fun discussion.

I love the solo in this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BE1KRj5iiM. It moves me. I've heard it hundreds of times and I just love it. It's basically F# minor pentatonic. I'm not saying it makes me cry, but it makes me close my eyes and just groove, man. I just think it wails and fits the song so well.

I would like to ask you--if you care to participate in this discussion--to listen to this entire song or at least through the solo, even if you hate Cobain, think he sucks, think he's overrated, etc. It's only a few minutes of your life. Even if you are one of these guys who thinks Clapton is the end-all-be-all of guitar playing and you think Nirvana was noise and you hate the 90s, here's my question:

Many of us agree that it's about getting the "feeling" and "emotion" into your playing, not about speed and the number of 1/16th notes you can cram in there, right? Everyone says something like that when criticizing a guy like Yngwee Malmsteen. In my opinion, Kurt Cobain was a master of very controlled bending. I think he makes the guitar "cry" or "wail" or "sing" with the best of them.

Now, I've been playing only 3 years and even I can kind of nail this solo, but like Steve Vai said: "I can play every note Jimi Hendrix ever played, but I can't for the life of me understand how he came up with them."

I feel I had a breakthrough in my playing when I understood how important bending and vibrato is. Prior to that I was playing "jazz" (not well) while trying to play rock--just hitting straight notes. Now as I listen to so many solos I like, I realize that often it's just a few notes and a lot of bending just right.

To you Clapton/Who/Rolling Stones types (the Baby Boomers) -- do any of you agree with me that this Cobain solo in this song ("Sappy") is good? I'm just curious. I honestly don't care if you agree with me or not and I'm not trying to change your mind if you don't like it. I will enjoy this song whether anyone else does or not.

Other potential discussion point: for how long were you playing when you really started to understand bending and vibrato?

I like that solo a lot, it's got that dirty Black Sabbath sound. If Kurt was a master of controlled bending, then he likes his bends a little flat. But it's all about the feeling and the mood, and he has both of those successfully in place. A great solo has to have more than theory and technique. This is a great example.

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this is kind of why i can see so much more feeling in blues and slower/more melodic styles of soloing as oppose to fretw*nking and playing as many notes as possible. i struggle to sense any sort of 'feeling' when listening to somebody play at a bazillion notes a second.

string bending is super important to convey any sort of 'voice' of the guitar i think. pre-bending a string before plucking it, then plucking it quickly as you release the bend slowly can be one of the best sounds to come from a guitar in my eyes (ears?)

I love Nirvana - I like this song - I don't care much for the soloing on this particular song . It does not move me . Sounds like someone is practicing pentatonic in a dull way
Though I like both bending and slow notes as opposite to machine gun-like soloing. But this one just does not do it for me

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A-man

Not an opinion I share. My opinion on Cobain is that he became MUCH larger in Death than he ever was in Life.



Personally, I think it's Dark, not particularly interesting, and not a masterpiece of Technique.

That said, I also feel that Clapton has been pretty much phoning it in in recent years too. I'm sure there's a wave of disagreement to follow this (Flame-Proof suit ON).

So far as Bending and Vibrato, I believe these are techniques EVERYONE who calls themselves a Guitar Player needs to master, and while I'm only 3 mos. in, I practice Bending 20 min. everyday, as I do Vibrato, Hammer-Ons, Pull-offs, Muting, Sliding.

I am the definition of 'Sucks' at the moment, but in time, I'll get on-top of each of these techniques.

cheers!

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I like Nirvana quite a bit so I'm biased here, but yes I think this solo has a really cool sound to it and I hear what you mean about the controlled bending. I think "In Bloom" is another good exampe of his style.

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While I can appreciate your generation's attraction to Mr. Cobain and his legacy its a shame he couldn't work through his problems because he would be a much better player today. If you want to see a true bendmaster just watch this short clip of Jeff Beck.This is not a difficult song to learn, but I doubt many can make it sound the way he does. Who needs a singer when your guitar does the singing for you?

Yep, I agree 100%. And once you get bending mastered, try putting vibrato at the top of the bends. And once you get hammer-ons and pull-offs mastered, try putting them together into legato runs. It's a (seemingly) never-ending upward spiral of technique.

Well said. Personally, I'm a casual Nirvana fan. I was a little old for Generation X, but I thought Nirvana was making good hard rock. Kurt obviously wasn't a virtuoso, but he developed a unique voice on the guitar that allowed him to make the music he wanted to make.

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Just a minor adjustment here: You are not quoting me , but Lightnin MN
BTW , I've been playing guitar for 41 years

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Oops, sorry, I'm not sure how that happened.

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A-man

This is a funny thread! All I heard was a guy trying to solo...he bends OUT of key!
epic fail IMHO.

Sorry not trying to start a flame war, but that is what I heard.

T2

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What time is it? It's Fender Time.

I dunno a lot about a lot but I know that the guitar in Tuesdays Gone by Lynyrd Skynyrd brings all my nostalgia, sadness and happiness up all at the same time.

To me, thats what one day I hope to be able to achieve when I write something.

I'm stuck in a feedback loop on one of the opening comments. I was never a Nirvana-hater. I was never a Nirvana-lover, either. I have a couple of their CDs but I have lots of CDs of lots of different groups. I keep an open mind. Nirvana was ... interesting. What I don't get is how this particular Nirvana song could ever "move" anyone. Dude ... seriously .... there are better Nirvana songs out there. This is the one that moves you? That don't compute for me. Sorry. Just being honest. That being said any thoughts I might have about the solo basically reflect the same kind of sentiment.
"Meh...."

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.