He was part of the era where it was cool to act like you don’t care about things. He also claimed he didn’t care about practicing but practiced relentlessly

I was a music theory and composition major. My first theory prof's words have always stuck with me: "Music theory teaches you how to analyse how music works. It's not intended to teach you how to write music. You compose from your heart. Break the rules."

Most people: Kurt didn't know music theory, he didn't know that chord. Rick Beato: I know that. But his ear knew.

Music theory isn't the rules, its the explanation!

Cobain intuitively figured out a lot of music theory, he just didn't bother to learn the words for the concepts he was utilizing. Because that's primarily what music theory is for, an agreed upon language so we can communicate with each other about abstract concepts

The truth? Do both. Learn. Then throw it away and let your brain pull whatever it likes from the theory subconsciously.

Steve Vai put it best essentially saying you need to have as much technique and theory as is required to do what you want to do with your music, that's it.

So I’m 51, was born in ‘73, started playing guitar when I was 17 and was really into Led Zeppelin and Metallica. I graduate HS in 91. I’m 18 and in college that fall, and Nevermind drops. I was completely blown away. The video gets played every 15 minutes on MTV, or so it seemed… I’m in my dorm room one day, exactly 3 days after Nevermind drops, and I hear some one in the dorm playing SLTS downstairs from me on a really loud electric guitar. I get up and go running at a full sprint through every floor of the dorm until I find the person playing it, and start pounding on the door as hard as I can. Mind you, I’m on the football team and am pounding on it so hard the upper corner of the door is bending into the guys room. He eventually answers. I basically force this guy to show me how to play the song, and ask him how he figured out how to play the song so quickly. He said he’s a guitar performance major, is in a band, it’s not a hard song, and that his band is playing at one of the bars that evening downtown and asked if I’d like to see them play. I told him I was 18 and wouldn’t be able to get in where they’re playing, and he goes how’d you like to be our roadie then. So being the strapping young lad that I am I become their roadie in exchange for guitar lessons. So this guy and I become pretty good friends. He’s actually a huge Dead Head, and Jerry is his favorite guitar player. He starts teaching me theory, how to use modes, how to actually jam with people instead of just playing a song the way it’s written, so on and so forth. I’m really glad he turned me on to jammy stuff like The Dead and The Allman Brothers, otherwise I think I would have just focused on learning songs note for note with tabs, and never really learning anything about music itself.

If you can't jam with someone, are you a musician? Of course you are. 'Musician' comes in many forms. A songwriter who works alone is just as much a musician as someone who only plays classical compositions and has never written a note in their lives. The whole of music is so much more than just playing your instrument, and figuring out what scale and key a song is in. Music is art, not math.

Eddie VanHalen said: there are twelve notes in octave do whatever you like❤😂. I like it👍

People who say that music theory is limiting or stops creativity really don't understand the point of music theory. Music theory isn't a set of guidlines or rules, it's a description. Admittedly, basic music theory is taught as if they were rules, you see lots of people teaching you to only use the 7 chords of major for a songwriting excercise for instance. But once you delve further into music theory you realise it's just suggestions. There's no difference between learning theory and someone showing you a cool set of chords they found except one lets you expand upon your knowledge and be more analytical.

If Kurt did learn Music Theory, Nirvana wouldn't sound like Nirvana...

Kurt, Beatles, EVH and Jimi Hendrix did not know music theory, they HEARD music theory

Kurt Cobain legit learned piano when he was little and people saying he didnt learn music theory is bullshits, he practiced everyday, had a guitar lesson, and theres out there believing kurt personally didnt learn nor utilised music theory?

The same thing happened between Noel Gallagher and Aimee Mann. Aimee graduated from Berklee - she kept asking Noel how he came up with his complex chord progressions and odd chords. He was like leave me alone I have no idea what you're talking about. He's said the same thing recently he isn't a guitar expert he's a songwriter.

John Mayer also "you dont need to know all and everything"...... *went to Berkleee school of music*

I know quite a bit of music theory, but I gotta be honest, I only think you need to know as much theory as you personally believe you need to know. Kurt may or may not be good in a jam, but you know what? Kurt wasn't a musician, he was a songwriter, it's not the same thing. His ability to be in a jam session isn't important because that's not what he was trying to do, he was trying to write songs, that's a different skill and that requires little to no theory at all. Personally, I have met equal amounts of musicians who both know a shit ton about theory and those who don't, and both have been just as likely to be shit in a jam. I've been in jams where I've known the most of anyone in the room and they all could play circles around me - That's just my experience and could be a comment on how shit my playing is, but it also made me change the way I think about this kind of thing. People who talk on this dichotomy always irk me on both sides because I don't feel like either side of the argument really understands what the other person is saying.

I think that the context here is important. I lived through the whole "grunge" revolution and people sometimes forget that right before that you had all these great virtuosos playing in bands and talking about how fast they were and about modes and how the practiced guitar even while going to the bathroom. So when the whole Seattle scene came about it was not about how many hours you practice, or how many arpeggios or modes you knew by heart, but about how much feeling can you put into music. If you check all the other Seattle bands, they had way more complex music (technically speaking) than Nirvana, and they could play solos, jam and improvise, but they also were not talking about the technical stuff all the time. The uncool part was to brag about how many hours you practice and how much music theory you knew, because those talking about that were mostly doing music that had no feeling.

So I took "Lithium isn't in a key" as a challenge. Its mostly in E major and E minor; there's a name for this (parallel tonality or something?, its multiple scales that both gravitate back to the same tonal center), with one borrowed chord from blues and one spicy WTF chord from I-don't-know-where. As is common with Kurt, the guitar is playing power chords while the vocal melody spells out more complex chords. Taking the vocal melody into account (all pitches sound one whole step lower than written, D Standard tuning, all mistakes should be attributed to years of smoking pot), I have the main chord progression as: E5 G#5 C#5 A7 C5 B5 Dmaj9 and the chorus section as A5 Cmaj9 A5 Csusb2 It contains chords primarily from E major and E minor, one chord from E blues, and one chord from smoking pot. As is common in Kurt's music, there are power chords that are deliberately ambiguous whether they're major or minor. That's what the I/i and V/v mean below. You could solo or compose over those chords as if they were major or minor and add extensions at will. I would analyze that as I/i--iii--vi--IV7--VI--V/v--Spicy9 I/i, iii (from E major), vi (from E major), IV7 (from E blues), VI (from E minor), V/v, and Dmaj9 I would notate as "spicy" as its not from major, minor, or blues. The chorus section I would analyze as IV/iv--VI--IV/iv--vi IV/iv, VI (from E minor), IV/iv, vi (from E major), which is fucking awesome. You can really see Kurt's habit of borrowing chords from parallel major and minor keys and minor/major ambiguity in this section. I'd like to see a really proficient jazz soloist solo over this section in particular. So what we have is a simple I/i--iii--vi--IV7--VI--V/v--Spicy9 chord progression, LMFAO And the chorus is IV/iv--VI--IV/iv--vi, emphatically LMFAO

I do think that a big reason he said this is to maintain this image of an un-practiced genius. But at the same time, what he says has an element of truth - creativity is inherently experimental, it’s largely just a process of throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks. Tampering with the creative process by introducing preconceived ideas like music theory can inhibit this process and thus lead to ideas which lack spontaneity and originality. I think this is why the best artists often report the experience of feeling insecure about their creative process. You’re not supposed to know what you’re doing, there is no ‘method’ to good art. This is not to say that theory has no purpose, it can be immensely useful as an analytical tool after pieces have been constructed to understand why the piece’s parts go together in the way that they do. But as a creative aid, it inevitably leads to a product which feels contrived in nature.

Some people are born with a brain that naturally understands music, and they can do a lot without knowing anything about music theory. Most people are not born that way. Learn your scales, folks!

bro put "dead wrong" like come on bro too soon

He also claimed he hated fame while pursuing game. He claimed music was too commercial while making commercial music.

Kurt hated everything. Including himself

It's funny to me, I'm 52 and when Nirvana broke huge, I had been playing for about 5 yrs practicing like crazy dreaming of sounding like a cross between Metallica and Steve Vai. Trying to learn lead and was starting to see some progress. Then this Kurt Cobain guy came along and everything I was practicing became lame. I hated Nirvana for yrs and yrs for insulting my "musical sensibilities" I'm over it now after some therapy. Lol

When you can drop less than a handful of albums your whole life and still be an absolute top staple in music history then you can say whatever you want

You're right. Kurt was a friend of mine. I jammed with Kurt for hours on end when we were young. From the time he moved to my hometown of Olympia right up to when Nirvana got really big. He was good at what he was good at. And if I was jamming something that felt familiar he could hop right in. But if I went to a style he didn't have much experience with, he was fairly lost. He was good at eventually figuring out how something differed from what he usually did but that was more on his own via trial and error. And it didn't take much of that because he had a good ear. But I could pretty much play to anything he came up with right away even if he was borrowing from different keys and doing way random things. Because I know how music works and I know where things go when they go off the rails. You don't need music theory at all. But it speeds things up to an insane amount and frees creativity because you can do just any random thing and know how it's going to sound and why it's going to sound that way. Theory releases creativity. Not the other way around. Which is why most people that don't use it are only good at one or two things. And they get stuck in what they call 'Ruts' because they don't know instantly what else they can do.

What’s better? Original artistry or letter perfect covers?

That 12 string jam was cool

Best Kurt Cobain troll: he put a DOD Grunge pedal on his board, not plugged in at all. When a reporter asked him about how he gets his sound, Kurt pointed at the Grunge and said, “I use that”. Well Kurt made DOD Grunge sales skyrocket that week… 😂

I agree with him. It's like language learning, you don't really need to study grammar because vocabulary is enough to understand conversations. Grammar comes naturally.

Knowledge of music theory is definitely helpful. I don't think it stifles creativity but if you're not careful, it can lead you down the same road over and over. There is value in just playing randomly around the fretboard in the hopes of finding something original.

He knew the basic chord names at the very least. They are drawn in his journals. He probably knew the pentatonic scale as well. And frankly, you don't need anything else.

Kurt knew “that goes there, this doesn’t, but it sounds good.” That’s the essence of understanding music theory.

I can't stop listening to your instrumental at the end - just brilliant!

I learned all the fancy terminology for painting in Art College. I've never used any of it.

”Kurt Cobain was DEAD… wrong about music theory”

it's like science. Music is fact, Theory explains the facts. Learning music theory teaches you how music works and gives you a common vocabulary that can be used with others who understand music theory. Kurt figured out some stuff about music - he had his own theory, but his knowledge is an island in his own language. He'd have a hard time working and communicating with other musicians. They'd have to find some common language. It would be a simple one. On the other hand, a trained musician could play right along with him, improvise, create...

Very well explained bro! You know how to get the point across. 🎸🙏

I wish you would mention the different guitars you use in your videos. For instance, what was that beautiful 12 string you were using? I'm sure most of your followers would like to know this information. Thanks

To me he thought relying on music theory was wrong was going way to be too technical is wrong you sound like a robot😂

Kurt came from punk rock... a style of music at the time built on 3 chords and the truth... his actual compositions indicated there was more going on apparently according to people like Rick Beato, but he didn't 'learn' that, it just came naturally through playing and by ear... most people are not Kurt though and will need some kind of training but Kurt was hardly the first person to think like that especially for Gen X'ers in music.

I am trying to learn music theory, I think it is a useful tool for people, that said, I do get overwhelmed with too much access if that makes sense. When I try and just freestyle music on my guitar, or bass, I’ll play a single chord, and then get hung up on what notes I “must” play to follow that chord. Like music is a rigid formula, and whatever notes I’ve played now locks me into a box where I have only one “proper” way to progress the rest of the song. Does that make sense?

I'm trying to not let theory bind me all too much, but it's still INCREDIBLY important to know to be a musician that's able to collaborate with others, as well as a baseline to start with!

The fact that he even knew what an "arpeggio" or the "Dorian mode" even was, kinda undercuts his whole sentiment.

The music I come up with is 75% theory & 25% "does that sound cool?"

Well, the harmonic field helped me to find out which scales I could use for a solo. But many times (not always), I ignored the correct combination of (power) chords and went for what sounds cool (playing Metal/Death Metal)

My brother was self taught, he could hear a song on the radio and play it in his way on guitar and it would sound the same or sound better , he learned to read music and write his own but it was just a hobby he said he would hate it if he had to do it all the time which was weird because he loved to play for people. So I can understand where Kurt was coming from . I wish I could play guitar like that my brother told me I'm to much a literal thinker to understand the way his brain works.

I never made musical progress for decades until I learned theory. Also it's all about learning a language that communicates an idea. I guess a person can become a writer or poet without learning how to read and write, but that person needs a superhuman memory.

The in bloom part at the end hits hard🔥🥬🍃👽😶‍🌫️

I'm not a great guitar player, but I think I started this way and so do most folks with a good ear. You hear it, you know what chord or riff would sound great next, or how to create emotional changes, but you don't know their names. It was wild when someone explained it to me. No one ever explained it to him and who knows, maybe if he made it to his 40s he would love learning those things. He definitely great music, and was unique in ways that most people don't get to experience.

I really disagree. I have definitely heard musicians who got worse when they got into what I called the Berklee box. Their creativity became so dominated by conceptual ideas of theory that they lost their originality sometimes, sometimes they lost a kind of primal power. Sometimes they just got self indulgent, totally lost in theory, and forgetting soul. I’m not saying this is true for everybody, but I have definitely seen detrimental effects in some people. So many people have come out of Berklee who sound the same to me. There are others, who went to that school, who don’t affect me that way. But there are many of them who seem to all have come to inhabit the same prison.

I actually think he was meaning in a way sometimes great songs and music can be created without being a technical wizard. I mean no offense to the raft of KZfaq guitar gymnasts (for instance) but quite often I find listening to them longer than 5 minutes very tiring.

The way I personally see it is, music theory is like a map. It tells you the best route to get to where you want to be, but there's still sone stuff you gotta figure out on your own. And, sometimes it's better to take a different, more scenic route. You don't have to relentlessly study every little bit of music theory, but there's still alot of stuff you should really learn as a musician.

It might be good to define what folks regard as " music theory" . Professional full time musicians often speak a language that some refer to as " music theory" It really is simply terminology. We use numbers to identify chords. It simply makes performance and rehearsal easier. We can hold up 2 fingers and the guy across the room or stage knows a minor II chord is coming up etc. We can chart a song numerically and that way if a singer needs the song in a different key we dont have to re-write the chart. It is a HUGE time saver. If anyone cares to learn these basics, they can post a comment and in a very short few lines I will teach them. I'm an old road dog. 40+ years of gigging/touring/sessions. I am happy to help. It is way, way more simple than one might expect.

What Victor Wooten said bro... Theory is a tool use it if you need it

DEAD wrong indeed

30 years after and we still balling

Which one of you two wrote songs that will be remembered for all time? End of debate.

yeah he was ‘DEAD’ wrong😜

It really doesn't matter. Music theory is describing and labeling music. Music is sound first, then it can be talked about. Music is learning to memorize the sounds and combinations of those sounds. You can talk about music after and what its doing, but that comes second and isn't necessary at all unless you want to use it to describe it.

I had a friend who was an amazing guitarist. He could solo up and down the neck of the guitar with ease and play in any key when jamming along with another player. Funny thing is he never knew what notes he was playing. He just knew what sounded right in that moment and had a great ear for music. I think I was the first person he saw playing cowboy chords because he had never seen those chord shapes before. Everyone learns music differently and it’s a beautiful thing.

Kurt go-BANG!

As I get older I find all Kurt’s hits were based off other songs.

there is actually a 7" with two songs thats not Nirvana where Kurt played guitar on, if you search The Go Team - Scratch It Out/Bikini Twilight you will find it

the fact is that you can’t learn to write lyrics and singing and playing in the way Kurt did, and is the same for many geniuses, like Hendrix, who didn’t know theory but they practiced constantly also learning songs they liked, and they are not only guitarists or singers or writers, but all in their own way. But if you want only to be a better guitar player, as most of us simply wants, studying theory is a good way to improve.

There could have been better word choices for the title 😂. Good video tho. Great perspective. I mean at one point music theory didn’t exist, chords didn’t exist, notes didn’t exist, just strings and a necks. Theory gives us universal lines to exist within so that we can move harmoniously when things become raw. It’s more of a fall back if need be, as you said, a suggestion.

I remember that on nineties that ”music theory kills creativity” was a very popular phrase. I havent heard it for a long time.

Then you have guys like SRV who was self taught and knew his guitar better than most know themselves and he added guitar theory to it later it just made him that much better. He wasn’t tied to theory so he could/did and was willing to do things that most guitarists wouldn’t dare or even think of yet he could still apply theory when needed. The man was simply the best and I could only imagine how much better he would have become if he were still alive.

Guitar nerd struggles to understand punk rock.

Never was a huge fan of the grunge era - primarily because of this attitude. I recognize the attraction to the songs - it is just the rejection of things just to be the guy that "doesn't care about any of that old school crap". The whole era seemed to revel in being depressed and sad. Unfortunately, Cobain never matured enough to understand his naive viewpoint because he died very young. One of the most prolific musicians of the past 50 years of popular music - Steve Lukather - has repeatedly squashed the notion that understanding theory is a waste of time. Music theory creates a common language for musicians to communicate with each other. As Tyler pointed out - it is not for the listener or fan (unless they have an interest) - it is for musicians to understand how the music is constructed.

I completely agree with Kurt. I think he was meaning that creativity is more important than technique. For some people, studding the rules stop the flow of creativity and blocks their expressiveness. Music theory is a convention to put boundaries to the infinity of music and sound. You can dedicate your time to study or to creation following your instinct. Just chose the path that what suits you better. I have been dedicated to creativity all my life, and that happens in all creative fields. Enjoy creating folks! that's the more important of all ❤‍🔥

He didn't believe in theory, but also in the unplugged session he asks if he should play a song in the normal key. Is transposing part of music theory...

Cobain was wrong about a lot of things. But is now a martyr to many.

Hey Kurt! Can you play "Happiness is a Warm Gun?"

I was just thinking about this earlier. When I try to write and apply music theory it tends to come out boring and unoriginal. When I just play what I hear in my head, it tends to make no sense with my rudimentary understanding of music theory, but I enjoy it more. Touche on the jamming point though. It is helpful in that setting for sure, but even then I tend to play better when I loosen up and play what comes to me without thinking about it.

Your version of "In Bloom" sounds like a midi video game muzak.

I’m with Kurt…..sorry we all can’t go to Berkeley…oh did you go to Berkeley? How did I know that would come up in this video

Makes sense why he hated the Grateful Dead then

The part where Tyler discusses kurt jamming with others hit so hard😂😂 bc thats me lol!! It’s really hard to jam when u don’t know music, but I’m fortunate that I can keep my head above the water with my ear. I respect music theory it makes things easier in it own aspects. Tyler hit a strong point with that

As the whole movement of Grunge was about the rejection of technical virtuosity and adoption of dire relatibility, I feel what Kurt wanted to convey was that music should come from within and should be relatable & emotive and not some sort of algorithmic formula.

Best thing to come out of Nirvana was the Foo Fighters. Kurt Cobain is INSANELY overrated. If he wasn't such a sad boi, I don't think he would be as popular as he is.

You are 100% correct! Kurt loved to play with the media. I have seen him do this many times to mind bend the interviewer. Classic Cobian 😂

I understand what Kurt said as I learned guitar by myself but I only enjoy learning complex technical music as entretainment. I can play jams and I think nobody can think of theory while playing but it only works from finger memory. Being technical and knowing theory is not the same. If you learn from theory you will not play anthing different than others

Depends on what you want to do. You can learn songs and riffs by rote memory, and you can compose based on what you think sounds cool without knowing anything about theory, but as Tyler rightly pointed out, if you want to be versatile and able to interact with other musicians you need to be able to speak a common language.

You use theory to communicate and understand what you are playing, not to dictate what you are "supposed" to play.

While practicing in a band, I did a trill. The band leader stopped the song and told me, "you're too good. You're a free agent now." That was because of Kurt Cobain. He sent guitar back into the Dark Ages. All these years later, I haven't forgiven him for doing that.

I jammed with one of my friends a lot years ago on my bass and he asked if I knew music theory, said no. He liked what I was coming up with over the music he looped. I never had “”lessons but have played in bands and have jammed with a lot of other musicians, I just always take the opportunity to learn things from them. Also I would just add, having a good ear and being able to keep time are equally as important as music theory. If you can’t keep time, good luck paying in a band if that’s one of your goals.

Can you promise me that your online guitarschool will teach me something that I want to learn or know about?

Music is feeling not theory to me.

How many records have you sold?

I enjoy learning about music theory. To me, it’s like adding more crayons to the crayon box before drawing. But I can definitely understand both sides of the equation.

technically, the Damned wrote the riff that Killing Joke also wrote that became the riff for "Come as you are."

Nirvana is the most over rated band of all time

I study music theory because I happen to love music theory. Also, my main goal is improvisation where I think theory is essential. But it's not for everyone. We all have to do music our own way. Whatever gets you where you want to go. Ted Greene once told me that it's all about desire and determination.

Music comes before theory imo. Theory can help you to be a precise performer or to be the most versatile composer as possible. I do love theory nowadays after many years of just using my ear and gut. Not knowing theory before never stopped me from creating music though, and that's the coolest thing in the world.

heard ur music, loved zero 3 5

I love how you made everyone stand on their toes with this one. Just love it.

I started learning guitar cause I wanted a fun and cool hobby that would challenge me. When I started I didn’t know anything but overtime got pretty decent from playing what I wanted. But overtime you do learn music theory naturally especially if you have jam sessions with friends. You don’t need music theory to have fun and play well. You need music theory to evolve what you know and what you can know

I have 3 seperate states of mind. Sometimes I learn theory. Sometimes I grunge out. And sometime I fuse them together. I like to be able to go back and analyze what I am doing. Theory makes music more enjoyable and better.