The Best Of Nirvana - Signature Licks

A Step-by-Step Breakdown of the Guitar Styles and Techniques of Kurt Cobain

By Nirvana

Almost perfect translations and really easy to use. You just gotta learn how to do power chords and barre chords and you can play everything in here. (you should have a chorus and distortion pedal to play the songs as Kurt played them)

This is a great book, plain and simple. Regarding Andrew's review earlier, I must disagree about the comments on the chord theory. Coming from someone who doesn't know a lot about that subject, it was nice to see how it works in real music. This wouldn't really...

make the information "pedantic" now would it? And, Johnson says that DESPITE the fact that Kurt couldn't read or write music, he still obviously had an amazing ear which allowed him to write the way he did. Also, he talks about his "imprecise" playing style in an endearing manner, not a derogatory one. Oh, and Andrew .. I bought the book to learn about the riffs and guitar style of Kurt (what the title says), not to learn nitpicky details about his equipment. (By the way, I found the info on the equipment to be quite comprehensive. If anything, I thought it was a little much.) Anyway, I thought the book was great.

Not only did I recieve the book quicker than any other online purchase I have ever made, but also the musical descriptions made by Johnson are really helpful. The guitar and sound section in the beginning of the book is good to know but I think more informational than for...

utilization. And yeah the author gives a "button-hole" biography of Cobain which is just a few paragraphs. But hey you're not buying the book to figure out his life story, right? I recommend this book to any decent guitar-playing Nirvana fan. GOOD TIMES

The info on guitars, amps and effects is just a few short paragraphs, all info that's readily available on the net. For each song, the author offers a few pedantic (and often irrelevant) blurbs about how the songs work in terms of basic theory and modality. Oh, and he...

spells out the chord progressions for you, in case you don't notice the letters over every bar. The cliched, half-baked interpretation of lyrics and commentaries on Kurt's emotional "struggle" are so hackneyed at this point and completely unneccessary. The most annoying thing is how the author repeatedly writes off Kurt's style as sloppy and "imprecise". More than once he brings up the fact that Kurt wasn't a "schooled musician", so he didn't really understand was he was doing. McCartney can't read music either. Get over it!Annoying.

This book does more than just show you licks. It gets inside the licks and chords and shows you some of the thought behind it. I was really impressed and highly recommend this to anyone!