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Nirvana - Where Did You Sleep Last Night - Guitar Lesson

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Key E minor
Nirvana - Where Did You Sleep Last Night guitar lesson video
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Classic Rock

Gain6
Bass6
Mid7
Treble6
Presence5
Master7
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Roll back the gain slightly and pick near the neck for a warmer, more open crunch.
MTV Unplugged In New York (Live Acoustic) album cover
MTV Unplugged In New York (Live Acoustic)
1994 5:06
Listen on Spotify
Nirvana Alternative Rock 1994 E minor
Capo Advisor 0 E minor · Original key

About Where Did You Sleep Last Night

"Where Did You Sleep Last Night" is Nirvana's raw, haunting rendition of a traditional American folk song rooted in Southern Appalachian music dating back to at least the 1870s. Originally known as "In the Pines," the song gained wide recognition through Nirvana's MTV Unplugged performance. For electric guitar players, it offers an approachable yet expressive fingerpicking and chord structure that rewards attention to dynamics and tone.

  • The song originates from two older folk pieces, "In the Pines" and "The Longest Train," both of unknown authorship.
  • Kurt Cobain's vocals on this track are widely considered some of the most intense of his career.
  • The song's roots trace to the Southern Appalachian region, spanning East Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Georgia.

How to Play Where Did You Sleep Last Night

Tuning: Open G · Key: E minor · Tempo: 170 BPM

Open G is built for slide and ringing open strings, so expect a fingerstyle or bottleneck approach rather than standard fretting. At 170 bpm it moves fast, so the real test is building picking stamina and keeping every note clean at speed.

Loop the hardest passage and creep the speed up from around 70 percent until it holds at 170 BPM.

Fender Stratocaster
Guitar

Fender Stratocaster

Cobain used the Stratocaster on several Nevermind tracks, leveraging its bright single-coils to cut through dense arrangements. Though less iconic than his Mustang, the Strat provided tonal clarity for melodic passages within Nirvana's heavy sonic framework.

Fender Twin Reverb
Amp

Fender Twin Reverb

Cobain deployed the Twin Reverb's clean headroom and natural breakup for softer verses and intros, creating dynamic contrast against his saturated Mesa preamp tones. The amp's warm response complemented his sparse, dry-focused signal chain.

DiMarzio Super Distortion
Pickup

DiMarzio Super Distortion

Cobain swapped DiMarzio humbuckers into his Jaguars and Mustangs to fatten their typically bright single-coils, pushing harder into his Mesa preamp for compressed, fuzzy sustain. This high-output bridge pickup was essential to Nirvana's thick, aggressive midrange distortion.

Boss DS-1 Distortion
Pedal

Boss DS-1 Distortion

The DS-1 functioned as Cobain's heavy-hitting boost pedal, slamming the front end of his already-overdriven Mesa preamp to intensify saturation during explosive chorus sections. Its gritty character helped define Nirvana's raw, in-your-face distortion tone.

Electro-Harmonix Small Clone
Pedal

Electro-Harmonix Small Clone

Cobain's signature chorus voice, heard prominently on Come As You Are and clean passages of Smells Like Teen Spirit, added subtle wobble and width. The Small Clone's lush modulation provided dynamic relief against his otherwise aggressive, compressed overdriven tones.

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