Just heard back from Curt Mitchell. He was totally cool with this video. Expect a future collab between Curt and myself most likely in the form of a podcast first. 👍

Plot twist: this guy was still bitter about grunge music taking over so he decided to teach people to play it incorrectly.

He was probably locked into a contract with one of those vhs guitar lesson production companies and had like a day to learn a few songs by ear and throw together a quick 30 minute lesson. Still seems like a cool guy

Kurt was a songwriter. His music wasn't complicated but it doesn't have to be. He knew how to write songs that appeal to a wide audience. He sang with a lot of emotion and people liked that. Had a good harmony to his voice that matched what he was playing.

Black Sabbath was a huge inspiration for Nirvana. I remember reading Ozzy Osbourne was a huge fan of Nirvana and then he freaked out when he heard that Kurt was inspired by him.

This dude actually teaches guitar in Carson City and I’ve been taking lessons from him. It’s always fun guy and he is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. He’s taught me a lot of cool songs and he’s really good at making sure I don’t take shortcuts with my playing. He actually let me play the guitar you see in the video and it has scalloped frets.

There's a quote where Kurt said he wanted to mix The Beatles with Black Sabbath, so that dude was spot on with that.

He is 100% correct on his assessment of Cobain as a guitarist vs Cobain using the guitar as a tool to write incredible songs.

Let me tell you something about these videos, I had several of them on vhs growing up when I was first learning guitar. Curt Mitchell is a very good guitar player and he was in a rock band called The Bangalore choir back in the '80s. He is a very good guitarist but the hair metal scene was so big that his band never really broke through. Anyway, had a bunch of his videos and I'm thankful that I was able to learn a whole lot from him. Keep in mind guys, this was before the days of KZfaq and this was one of the only resources we had. However, I can assure you that his VHS tapes were in every guitar store Coast to coast. On a side note, he was a huge Eddie Van Halen fan and his guitar is a custom built Warmoth. He talks about it in some of his other videos.

I like Curt's interpretation of these songs. Almost sounds like Alice In Chains doing Nirvana covers. Everything is in the pentatonic box and the chords are all super tight and crunchy.

Curt is a legend. A myth. An enigma. Check out his work with Bangalore Choir. This dude can rip and tear.

For those who are mistaking this Curt Mitchell with the guy who murdered Tanya Tandoc, that's a DIFFERENT Curt Mitchell. A simple Google search proves that.

Its fascinating how Curt breathes life into "Breed". His natural 80s rock style when demonstrating the riff makes it sound like Ratt"s "Body Talk". It really is an interesting clash of style and era here as shred players adapted somewhat reluctantly to the grungy change of tides.

I had his Randy Rhoads tape as a teen and that open A is so burned into my brain 20+ years later I can still tune to it.

Curt Mitchell is phenomenal. His Van Halen tutorials are still some of the best. He doesn’t bash grunge. He has comments which I’m sure the company he worked for made him do the video like if a virtuoso had to teach Billie Eillish method lol. He does praise Kurt for being a lyricist and melodic to his chords. A game changer. Curt is the man!

The thing that struck me towards the end is that he felt legitimately bothered that Kurt took his own life. That is the element of shared humanity and compassion that can connect us all, and that shows up in music that speaks to us as human beings.

All of the guitar solos on Nevermind were recorded with a telecaster; specifically the one that Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead is famous for playing as his favorite guitar. It was an old telecaster that I converted into a Telecaster Plus clone. Radiohead, Nirvana, and Mazzy Star was touring Europe at the same time. We (I was a guitarist for Mazzy Star) went to each other's shows and partied together. Jonny won that guitar from me in a game of poker.

He’s a legendary guitar instruction video tutor. My dad had his VHS tapes when I was little and I grew up watching them. Love seeing this. Gave me a whole new level of respect for him seeing him talk highly about Cobain and not so much on the typical shredders of the 80s who were “so much better”. They were all talented, but Kurt had something they didn’t.

Whew, that takes me back. I bought Curt Mitchell's video+tabs for Metallica, Ozzy, and Korn, out of the Musician's Friend catalog in the late 90's. The tabs weren't always spot on, but the guy was basically my teacher in a pre-youtube small town where everyone listened to country music. And he wasn't any worse than the "official" tab books back then anyway. XD

This channel has gotten big enough that feel like Mike should be sitting down WITH people like Curt or Paul Gilbert and going through their videos!

The old classic, Curt Mitchell. Guys like him are the forefathers of todays KZfaq instructors. Cool nostalgia shot here.

Curt can be forgiven because his EVH lessons still stand up today, despite all the new transcribing tech. It does feel though like Curt didn't take any time at all on this video. I feel like Curt couldn't quite believe that anyone would need a lesson to be able to play this stuff, like someone being asked to do a lesson on how to walk. It was a missed opportunity to drill down on some of the subtle things in Cobain's guitar parts that people still don't pick up on now (like the correct strumming pattern for Smells like Teen Spirit) and Curt Mitchell was the MAN for forensic deep dives, as evidenced by his work on the VH stuff.

Before I watch this, I want to say Curt Mitchell is an amazing guitarist and I believe had to play riffs different due to copyright issues. I could be wrong on that. He wasn't trying to teach you how to play songs, but how to sounds like them. Before modeling and the internet, these videos were excellent for helping get a sound you were looking for. Please review his other videos! edit: I emailed Curt and sent him the video. You should do an interview with him

Curt Mitchell's classic rock videotape was my gateway to learning guitar. I learned probably fifty riffs and that kept me going.

Kurt literally said his goal was to make Micheal Jackson pop tunes to Black Sabbath style riffs. So yes the heavy sound nirvana had was very much sabbath like

Learning to play in the 90’s these tapes were gold. I learned so much for this guy back then. Brings back a lot of memories. Great video.

He was actually doing an amazing job with experimenting with different formats. On the Eric Clapton tape, it came with a booklet that you would have to reference if you wanted the tab. Later on, on the Metallica 2 tape, they used on screen tabs. On some of the more tricky riffs, he would not only play the riffs multiple times slowly and normal speed, but he would play specific parts of the riff and give his ideas on potential pitfalls, and how to overcome them. The series of tapes was called “in the style of “and not be official transcription :-) he always stressed that every guitarist has their own voice, and we should focus on learning how the compositions were created in order to find our own voice. That really helped me since I could never see good enough to make out anything other than the general idea in the tab books anyway. Everybody thought I was cool for putting my own spin on the music and the truth is that I had to :-)

Gotta agree about Malmsteen. I can listen for a few minutes and be amazed with how incredible his playing is. But I've never gone "Oh what a great song let me go listen to that again or buy it".

I attribute Curt's Van Halen instructional videos on how I play now. Truly a legend.

Curt Mitchell is a name that really took me back. I had his VHS Metallica lessons, and I wore that tape out when I first started playing. I understand why you'd find Curt's tuning explanations so amusing in today's world, but as an old-timer who started playing back in the nineties, I can tell you that lots of sources were awkward about what were thought of as "quirky" tunings. I remember Guitar World Magazine talking about "Drop D down a full step" instead of saying, "Drop C." You'd hear "tune a full step down" instead of saying "tune to D standard." (Notice how it's implied that you would have to tune down in order to reach D standard?) Curt's stammering is really just an open window into another time. There just wasn't the same comfort level talking about low tunings as there is today. Of course there were outliers like Motley Crue or Black Sabbath that routinely used lower tunings, but the vast VAST majority were still riding E standard. As always, great video!

I literally don't know how anyone learned to play guitar to a decent level before the days of KZfaq. KZfaq teachers are gifts from God 🤘

Curt’s videos are unbelievable. The EVH video and the SRV videos are top notch and in my opinion haven’t been replicated since. And he did all of it before technology/KZfaq/etc

curt Mitchell is the best... his Van Halen guitar method is spot spot on! I love his tone his technique everything

I understand the half step tuning because Kurt would always play a half step down live, so either someone told him he was always in half step down tuning or he just assumed that since he's always playing that tuning live, the same thing happened in the studio.

Curt’s VHS tapes on Van Halen changed my life! That’s not an exaggeration…before KZfaq was prominent , playing Van Halen seemed impossible to me, but Curt took the mystery out of it and even though it was still challenging it became possible. If you read this, Thanks Curt!

The thing with Nirvana songs was that Kurt's melodies we're interesting and unique because the chord progressions were unique and didn't always stay completely diatonic. 👍

There's an interview out there where Cobain said that they listened to everything from black sabbath to bay city rollers.

Curt Mitchell taught me guitar and I am forever grateful! He's so engaging and cool!

Great vid, from both of you. I hadn't heard of Curt Mitchell until now but he has gained my respect for his straightforward honesty and humility.

I learned my first Hendrix and Clapton riffs from this guy. Life before the internet. He showed me a lot via VHS.

I thought it was weird too that he compared them to Sabbath. However I cannot stop hearing the Sabbath/Fu Manchu now. Fascinating. Nice video.

My first introduction to Curt Mitchell was his "80s metal riffs" dvd which I still have. It taught me many licks and tricks as a noob and I always mention him when talking about instructional dvds that I used back in the early days.

🤘🏻🔥🤘🏻I kinda agree that he looks like he wasn't happy being there haha, perhaps that was just his resting grumpy face or something haha. I love what he ended up saying about Kurt's songwriting and playing, it doesn't have to be insane and flashy to convey what he's trying to say or get his point across. Nirvana was pretty big for me growing up so they and Kurt will always hold a place in my heart. I did a little search for Nirvana history on this day and it turns out in 1991 they played a nearby city to me called Bristol at a now closed down venue called The Bierkeller, thankfully I went there a few times before it closed.

Just watched the original video, easily found here on KZfaq. The guy is nothing buy complimentary about Kurt. Just watch the first 3 minutes to hear how respectful he is and how he pokes fun at himself. It's laughable to think that someone can't say that Kurt wasn't a "good" technical guitarist. Especially when they qualify it very specific ways. He clearly explains how Kurt's songwriting was where he was great, even Beatle-esque.

Curt Mitchell is bad ass!! I used to watch all his videos when I was younger. He’s an incredible teacher and a great guitarist

I actually owned this video on VHS. I've always been a HUGE Nirvana fan and when I was first starting to learn guitar, my parents gave it to me for Christmas.

I laughed out loud when “Kinda confusing tuning explanation #4” hit the screen. Felt like an Abbot and Costello routine at that point.

Thanks for this really crazy video. The guy seems somewhat reluctant to do the video. I also wonder if all of these little mistakes with regard to Nirvana songs were common among guitarists in the early to middle 90s. (I was in the very very early stages of guitar at this point.) And thanks for being self deprecating, Mike. There are some KZfaq guitarists who take themselves a bit seriously and you have a of lightening stuff up. Thanks, dude.

Curt Mitchell was an awesome guitarist and you right he didn’t enjoy doing that video but to my memory he did some really good stuff back in the day..

Loved my Curt Mitchell VHS tapes growing up in the 90s. Always a good time sitting on the sofa with my guitar, watching the "OldTube"

It's always a good day when shredders can take note of Kurt's ability, he drove just as many people to pick up the axe as Hendrix. Love the videos, I also started with Paul Gilbert VHS.

Great video. Some people don’t realize in the past there was no you tube but only guitar books with confusing tabs most of the time you would learn how to play little bits here and there from other players. It was a lot harder to get information.

I think Curt Mitchell is a cool dude for being alright with the video, especially as it’s so instructive and very nostalgic for me seeing those kind of guitar instructional vids again. Ace content as always.

Curt is the only person to explain how to play the end of Eruption, you use a chorus pedal and turn a knob on it

I picked up a guitar at 14 to play Led Zeppelin and the hair metal bands I loved. Less than two years later, everyone wanted to talk about these guys who never seemed to play as well as the guitar players I loved. It took me a long time to get it. Once I realized these guys wrote such great songs, I was totally annoyed with friends still trying to explain that the hair metal guys could shred better than anyone who came later when that was never the point.

I want to add that his Van Halen course intro song, which is not a VH song but something that sounds like them, is absolutely killer

One of the things i love about Kurt's playing was his technique of using feedback in songs

Dude this is gold! You should make a sub series on these old training videos. Both fascinating and funny as hell! BTW you were far to kind in your assessment of his shortcomings, you're a good dude. 👍

i can actually see some Black Sabbath influence in Nirvana. also man that White SG is gorgeous, probably my favorite color on an SG

I won't hear a bad word about Curt Mitchell! I learned everything in my youth from Curt's videos. The first Hendrix, SRV, Jimmy Page, Santana, Clapton, and Randy Rhoads videos were excellent, especially for the time period. To this day I still have a love for natural strats and I'm pretty sure it's because of Curt.

Your video is essential watching material, especially for anyone who wants to get a vibe of the transition from hair metal to grunge. Yeah, I was just into my teens when grunge took over, and I remember all the shirts swapping overnight. The guy wearing a Poison shirt on Monday was wearing a Nirvana shirt Tuesday. A LOT of the hair metal musicians were super bitter at the time, but eventually realized that's the nature of music, and even learned to take it with a really positive and growing experience. Definitely seems to be the case here, with this instructor acknowledging that record labels were really pushing for the hair metal sound and then quickly abandoned the bands they were pushing. You end up feeling bad for these guys because they got so attached to the hair metal identity, that fans wouldn't accept them trying to get out of it. It's great to see this reaction, because it adds so much context to what was happening at that time. thank you!

Curt Mitchell reminds me of the guys I played guitar with in jr. high, circa 1992-93. Takes me back. This video was entertaining and informative on multiple levels. Bravo sir 👏

He looks like Adam Sandler in an unreleased film about a struggling rockband, called "The Hairmitments"

Curt Mitchell was and is a phenomenal guitarist. I used to have all of his courses on VHS. You have to realize it was much much harder to figure out how musicians were playing their licks back then. Concert footage was always shot at a distance with cut-away video. All the big guitarists hid their licks intentionally from the camera. Tab books sucked and were put out by guys figuring out stuff sitting on the edge of their bed. As for Kurt Cobain Nirvana I’m not a huge fan but I’m not a hater either.

You are seriously my favorite guitar teacher. So down to earth and good at explanation.

I've seen ALL of "CURT MITCHELL'S" instructional videos. People would comment and criticize Curt, and I didn't understand why. CURT MITCHELL is an AWESOME guitar player and his instructional videos include different styles, techniques, equipment, etc. of a variety of mainstream, well-known guitar players. He put a lot of work into those videos!!!

I remember him! I used to have a vhs of him teaching Metallica stuff. That's how i learned to play fade and master properly. Back when there was no youtube😅. Thanks for the lessons Curt! Thanks Mike for bringing him up. Ps. The vhs lesson is actually in youtube! kzfaq.info/get/bejne/it2be8Wr05_WpZs.html I remember that guitar he uses. Nostalgia!

This is brilliant…informative and really funny! I took up guitar in ‘87 aged 30….electronic tuners were available, but easy access to tabs wasn’t, although Tower Records let me take out a subscription and sent me GTFPM over to England. The guitar magazines always seemed to have big hair and pointy headstocks on the cover and Vinnie Moore was killing the VHS market….in a strange way, grunge was a bit like the punk/new wave reboot in the 70’s, it was a reboot that made making music accessible without going to GIT.

Yeah, learning guitar now is completely different than the early 90's for me. I had a great guitar teacher. I wanted to learn Modes but he gave me a brief overview with a little bit of instruction. It wasn't untill about 8 months ago that I got a full understanding. I owe it to you and others on KZfaq.

When I was a kid just learning guitar Nirvana was my favorite band. I bought this VHS tape and I LOVED it! Curt Mitchell was awesome! I loved this tape so much! I’m so glad these videos are on KZfaq.

I bought this guy’s Metallica video. Some inaccuracies but overall it was good. Dude can absolutely shred.

I love Curt Mitchell, his EVH lesson is very in depth and usefull. He should do video with Rick Beato.

Cobain shopped a lot for his gear at a small shop in Olympia, Washington. There were, just like now, very small lefty choices. So, inexpensive gear was a result of a lack of left handed stuff available. This was way before online shopping… what they did do, once they could afford good gear, Gave all their rehearsal gear away one day at the west Olympia storage spot where we all played.

Very nostalgic, i havent listened to this stuff for like 2 decades, but i still knew the name of every song he played as if i listened to it yesterday

It's very interesting seeing all of this! Great video Mike, now you'll just have to find an 80s or 90s Metallica Instructional lol.

That Bangalore Choir album from '92 is great, it's completely unoriginal in every way but sounds like an action movie soundtrack! EDIT: Damn, apparently the album was produced by Max Norman and Aldo Nova 🤣

Hey man. I just want to say that I really enjoyed these videos the last couple of days. The whole subject of the TAB books and transcriptions in general, is something that I deal with all the time as a guitar teacher, and have for years, so instantly I was drawn to watching this and can relate 1000%. These are the only guitar-teaching videos I have found in years that I’ve actually been interested in watching. Lol. Very cool niche and entertaining. On top of that, your explanations and comments are very concise and to the point, while not overdoing it and bringing unnecessary focus back to yourself, like so many teachers on KZfaq do. Keep up the good work and thanks again! 🎸

I actually liked Kurt's playing!! the free vibe! the antics on stage!! and getting his sound can be done on cheap! grab a secondhand Boss DS-1 or DS-2!! thats a very good start

Even Kurt said it himself “I couldn’t pass guitar 101 but I think I make up for it with songwriting” Mitchell was forward thinking for the time 👍

I remember my Dad buying and using the old VHS tapes to learn styles of guitar. A guy named Ray Flacke (Flacky.... that's how's it's pronounced). Dad played it over and over trying to catch the licks. No tab.... so it's awesome to hear him progress as he learned. Honestly the instructor was great at fast old school country licks on a tele. Ie, Ricky Skaggs, Vince Gill,etc.

Curt’s Metallica video was my first guitar instructional video and I learned a ton from it. Much respect to him.

My independent music "dealer", who hooked me up with Alice In Chains months before anyone had heard of them, sold me Nirvana on the day Nevermind came out. I asked him who they sounded like. He said no one. I called bs and mentioned how Tea Party Splender Solis didnt' sound like anyone but a metal magazine said it was like if Glenn Danzig sang for Led Zeppelin. He said, "Okay...It's like Metallica meets the Beatles.". I said I'm in.

Curt is a great player. His Van Halen Style Instructional video is great.

I lived in a small town. I called every music store within 100 miles and only 1 had a vhs instructional tape I wanted. On payday, I drove an hour in my little Mazda pickup to that store and bought the Richie Kotzen Rock Chops tape. I loved it but it was a little too advanced for me at the time. I still can’t play most of it but It’s awesome to see on KZfaq. I still have it, along with a few Paul Gilbert tapes(pentatonic licks cheerleaders) and a Scott Henderson tape that blew my mind. The “In the style of” Neal Schon cassette was cool too. Thank God I ordered the Doug Marks Metal Method cassettes. Those taught me scale patterns and modes in a way I could grasp them at age 17. “If Dora Plays Like Me All’s Lost.” Modes!!

That's why I've always just trusted my ears when learning to play new songs. Never trusted tabs or watched instructional videos personally. That doesn't mean I play everything perfectly still, more than happy to take feedback when I'm playing with another guitarist and they play it exactly how it's supposed to be played.

Also this video really illustrates Curts brilliance.

Curt is a legend! I love how slightly passive aggressive he comes across, i never gave a toss about Nirvana myself haha :D

I played in the shred scene in L.A. from about '86 till it went away in '91, and Nirvana was the last nail in the coffin. That hair metal scene was on its way out, and this was very clear by 1990, but the fall of '91 really marked the end because of how hard Nirvana hit the music world. Suddenly, nobody gave a damn about shred anymore. While I'd agree that shred got ridiculous, grunge was not the answer. But it was the response. Grunge set itself apart not only by what it was, but what it wasn't, and what it wasn't was hair metal. Whereas hair metal was often about partying and wild women, grunge was about the dark side of life, and little more. It was, in a way, perfect for its day, because the early 90s were the doldrums. America was no longer high on itself, the Cold War was over, and grunge represented the dispirited vibe of the day.

So cool! Love the vintage VHS 📼 lessons. This was a funny one. Thanks for sharing!

This whole Curt Mitchell instructional video is great imo. I remember it being one of the first Guitar lesson Video's I've really gotten into.

I bought this when it came out. Curt Mitchell, and I did want to learn Nirvana songs like a rookie. lol. You know what... it was better than the tab books by a mile. Of course it's wrong. It's "in the style of.." series. What a classic. lmfao

Man I remember this guy. I had his Metallica video back in the day. My parents bought me my first guitar when I was 12 and bought this video along with it. They sat me down in front of the vcr and said here you go, play like this. I was like what? How am I supposed to do that? Not long after I started taking proper lessons. But anyways I always thought this guy was pretty cool.

Yup. Figuring stuff out used to be way harder and often inaccurate. We all the know the story of evh turning his back to the audience to hide what he was doing. Now we have 4k video of dozens of people breaking it down in slow motion.

It just goes to show only the artist that wrote the song really knows how it's played. That's why I laugh when I hear so many guitar teachers say they have a good ear & they improvise. It also goes to show shredding or how fast you can play doesn't really matter. Like B.B King said he knew he could never play fast & came up with his own. Music would be a very boring thing if everyone shredded & played fast.

The Police and Black Sabbath were definitely influences on his songwriting, although The Police weren't mentioned a lot by others.

It's worth mentioning that not only did Curt not have access to the more advance/techie teaching tools of today, neither did the many practicing musicians that relied on the VHS lesson tapes of Curt and many others of the period, back then your eye's-n-ear's played an essential part in how quickly (or slowly!) you progressed as a guitarist. Back in the 80's/90's there really wasn't any tech available to "slow it down" like there is today, Tascam had an early cassette version of their CD Guitar Trainers that were popular in the late 90's/early 2000's, but those were little black-and-white ads buried in the back of the GW & GFTPM magazines.. As for whether or not Curt was bored or bitter in filming his VHS lesson on the style of Nirvana, I would guess he was probably bored by it all considering what he's capable of musically.. I mean let's face it, aside from likes of STP & AIC, the grunge movement wasn't about guitar hero's and rock stardom as much as it was potent lyrical messages paired with simple songwriting methods.. I can remember a lot of us saw a drop students from the grunge generation, not because they were at war with all of us older "hairband" guitar teachers, but mostly because they could learn most grunge songs accurately from TAB without the help or guidance of a teacher/instructor.. Anyone old enough to have came up with VHS lesson in the 80's know's Curt had to "dumb himself down" to add Nirvana to his VHS lesson offerings, not baggin' on Kobain, just sayin' ya had to been there to fully understand what was happening at the time..

I was helping Curt back in the day before he started videos with his "Learn to Burn" course. We never met but just communicated through emails. Anyway every thing he had printed was hand written and didn't look very professional, so I offered to computerize all the tab so it would look a little better. I had just completed a couple of books when he contacted me and said not to continue because of some copyright issues. So he just used the tab description in the front of the book that I completed and then used cassette tapes to "tell you what to play" with a blank tab page and write in down in the book. Those were days.

Hi Mike! After watching your new video about kings of downstrocke, I am interested in Kirk Hammett's downstroke technique. Could you, please, tell us some more about it? Also that would be great if you do a video about greatest Gilbert's or Malmsteen's techniques, I really enjoy this type of your content! Thanks.

I really likes them back in the day because the songs were easy to play. Same with rage against the machine. They make you think you're a way better player than you are.

I used to have this on VHS back in the day!! That’s awesome.