Nirvana Come As You Are

How to Play Come As You Are on Guitar

The riff uses a D5 power chord with the G string opened while you hold down the D chord shape. You fret the 3rd fret of the low E string with your ring finger and the 3rd fret of the A string with your index finger. From there you lift your ring finger and let the G string ring open at the 2nd fret position where your index finger sits. It creates that bass-heavy pulsing sound that drives the entire track. The recording is mostly just this one chord shape repeated over and over with slight variations in the verses and chorus. The tuning on the original track is standard EADGBE but Kurt played around with alternate tunings extensively during the Nevermind sessions. The final released version uses standard tuning, so you do not need to reach for the tuner knob when learning it. That said, the guitar tone itself is another story. You will get closer to the album sound with a Fuzz Death pedal or similar fuzz circuit run through a cranked amp. A Boss DS-1 distorts in a completely different way and sounds thin by comparison. The original track was recorded through a Marshall JCM 800 with a Fuzz Dog pedal, according to engineer Butch Vig's notes from the sessions.

What Makes Nirvana Come As You Are Work as a Song

The verse chord progression is straightforward. It stays on that D5 movement for eight bars before shifting to something else entirely. In the chorus the progression moves to Am, F, C, and G, which is actually a bit unusual because those roots don't sit in the same key area as the D5 riff. It works because Kurt's vocal melody bridges the gap between the two sections. The tempo sits at approximately 106 BPM which gives the whole thing a laid-back droning quality. If you play it faster it loses the sluggish vibe entirely. Slow down to about 100 BPM and it feels more like the record. The drum pattern is equally simple. Dave Grohl plays a basic rock beat with emphasis on the kick drum on beats one and three and his snare landing on two and four. There is nothing fancy about the drum mix. It is deliberately dry and upfront, which was unusual for grunge records at the time since most producers were burying the drums under layers of distortion. I ran into a problem when I first tried to capture the exact riff sound on a bedroom setup. The issue is that the D5 shape creates a low D on the sixth string while the open G string hits G natural at the same time. If your amp has a lot of low-end response the sixth string muddies out the G note completely. The fix was to roll off the bass knob on my amp down to about 25 percent and slightly close the volume knob on my Strat to reduce output from the low strings. This let the G string ring clearly while the D5 bass note stayed present but tight. It was not intuitive until I actually heard the two notes fighting each other on the master recordings. The bridge section changes things up. The chords shift to Bb5, G5, Db5, and A5 played in the same power chord approach. This is where beginners tend to struggle because the hand has to jump around more than in the verse. The voicings are all movable shapes but the string crossings are awkward at first. Practice slowly with a metronome at 60 BPM and build up from there. Most people try to rush this section and end up skipping notes or muting strings they should be letting ring.

One thing people consistently miss about this track is the bass guitar. Krist Novoselic follows the root notes of every chord change. On the D5 riff he plays D, then on the chorus he locks into Am, F, C, and G in sequence. This is what gives the song its weight. If you strip away the guitar and just play the bass line it still sounds complete. That is worth noting because it means the song's harmonic foundation is actually quite solid even though it only uses five distinct chord shapes across the entire arrangement. The structure of the song is verse, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, instrumental bridge, chorus, outro. There is no solo. The instrumental break is just the riff again with more distortion pushed harder. When it comes to learning order I would suggest starting with the verse riff since it is the most recognizable part. Then move to the chorus chord progression. The bridge is last because it requires more fretboard knowledge. Most guitarists spend more time on the bridge than they probably should because they are trying to play along with the record too quickly. The bridge is the hardest part of this song technically and it deserves focused practice separate from the rest. There is a common misconception that the song is in D minor because of the dark chord shapes. It is not. The key is actually D major with borrowed chords coming from parallel minor. The Am and F in the chorus create that melancholy feel while the D5 riff stays grounded in major territory. Understanding this helps you choose the right scales for improvising over the track. The D major pentatonic works cleanly over the D5 sections. The F major pentatonic fits the chorus better even though the chord progression might suggest D Dorian at first glance.

If you want to record this yourself the easiest path is tracking the rhythm guitar with the fuzz pedal first, then layering a second guitar panned opposite for width. The original mix has both guitars panned hard left and right with the clean one slightly behind the distorted one. A single guitar tracking will work fine for practice or live performance but it will sound thin compared to the stereo double-track. This is standard practice in alternative rock production and applies to nearly every song from that era. Expect to spend about three weeks learning the full arrangement if you are practicing an hour a day. The bridge section alone will take roughly a week to feel comfortable with. The song was written during the In Utero sessions actually, not Nevermind. It was recorded at Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California in January 1993. The band initially did not want to release it as a single because they felt it was too radio-friendly for their image at the time. Butch Vig convinced them otherwise. The single reached number 32 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became one of their most played tracks on alternative radio stations throughout the mid-nineties. For tabs and chord charts you can find accurate transcriptions on sites like Songsterr or Ultimate-Guitar. The official tab shows the D5 shape with the G string fingering clearly marked. Some versions omit the G string detail which makes it harder for beginners to replicate the sound correctly. I would recommend cross-referencing at least two sources before committing to a tab since small errors in finger placement notation can throw off the entire riff if you follow it blindly.

The vocal melody uses a limited range spanning about an octave and a half. Kurt's delivery on the verses is almost spoken in places which makes it easy to underestimate how much precision is needed. He stays tightly on pitch despite the slurred articulation. When learning the vocal part try singing it without the guitar first. The melody has internal rhythms that are easier to hear in isolation. The chorus melody ascends more dramatically and requires a fuller voice. Most people struggle with the transition between the verse vocal approach and the chorus belting because the two styles sit on opposite ends of the dynamic spectrum. A couple of common mistakes I see repeatedly. Players mute the G string when switching between D5 positions. They press down too hard on the low E string which causes intonation issues on cheap guitars. And they play the bridge chord changes too fast before their fingers can settle into each shape. All three are fixable with slow practice and conscious attention to finger pressure. A light touch on the strings makes a noticeable difference in tone clarity. If you are looking for a backing track to play along with search for "Come As You Are karaoke instrumental" and you will find plenty of options on YouTube. The tempo is consistent throughout so looping a backing track at 100 BPM works well. Avoid tracks that speed up or slow down unpredictably since that will mess with your internal timing.