Learn to play Come as you Are by Nirvana on guitar.
We have put together the very best free lessons available online (Over 4.6 million people have watched these video lessons on their quest to play Come As You Are.) and we are adding new lessons as they become available.
You can listen to the song here on Spotify while you play along!
Our Top Choice
Marty Music
Over 2.8 million people have viewed this lesson online.
In another teaching masterclass by Marty, he takes this song by Nirvana which has some challenging parts and breaks it down so that anyone can play it.
Other Great Choices
Good Guitarist
This lesson has been viewed over 1.1 million times!
Everyone loves to learn songs that seem to never wane in popularity and this is one of those songs.
James does an incredible job of taking this classic and making it yours.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
0:00 – INTRO
1:20 – MAIN RIFF
4:57 – MEMORIIIIIIIAAAAA
8:05 – …CHORDS, STRUMMING & PLAYALONG FOR THAT
9:05 – THE LAST PART
11:10 – THE SOLO
14:51 – FAREWELL!
This is actually a pretty packed lesson: we start off by talking about tuning. This song is actually in “D-Standard” tuning, and I explain how to re-tune your guitar, BUT to keep things simple, we’re going to stay in “E-Standard” tuning (the regular one) so no worries there!
First up is the riff, we go through it a few notes at a time, making sure you’re using the right fingers so you can play it easily and get the right feel. Then we go over the “memoria” part, and then the “well I swear that I don’t have a gun” bit.
Finally, we go over the solo, which is one of the easier guitar solos you’ll come across (aside from that “pedal” bend at the end).
All-in-all, this is a very intricate song that can be REALLY simple if you break it down like we show you in the video. I hope you enjoy learning it and hopefully the neighbours don’t complain too much 😀
Another Great Choice
GuitarLessons365Solo
This lesson has been viewed over 700,000 times.
In this Come As You Guitar guitar lesson video, I will show you how to play this Nirvana classic note-for-note.
The first thing you will need to do in order to play along with this lesson video and the original recording is to get your guitar into what is usually referred to as “D standard” tuning. That basically means you will be tuning all the strings down a whole step. Starting from the 6th string that will be (D G C F A D).
You will probably see some live performance of “Come As You Are” around the internet as well. During these live performances, Nirvana usually only tuned down one-half step instead of the full whole-step found on the original recording. So if you want to play along with a live version of the song tune your guitar to (Eb Ab Db Gb Bb Eb). Both versions of the song are played exactly the same way on the guitar. Only the tuning varies.
I chose to use the original “D Standard” tuning for this lesson since I feel it helps create the dark mood of the song.
The intro and verse consist of a single note riff that is instantly recognizable to any rock music fan of the past 25 years or so. It is simple to play but can be a bit awkward for the beginning level guitarist.
The remaining rhythm sections of the song use only simple chord shapes, a highlight being the sus4 bar chord used during the chorus.
The last thing I will show you how to play in this lesson is Kurt Cobain’s guitar solo. Once again, he keeps everything pretty simple here with a repetitive melodic phrase. The long bends at the end of each phrase include the use of open strings to create a sort of chaotic sound, but it is still one of the more simple solos you will come across.
Have fun learning this classic from the one and only Nirvana!