Play "Something In The Way" by Nirvana on the Guitar

Learn how to play Something In The Way by Nirvana on the acoustic guitar! This song is an all-time guitar classic, and you'll find a great version of it on Nirvana's MTV Unplugged album. :)

This song can be easy to play: Kurt's version on the original album is easier than what I do in the demo. :) My version accentuates the bassline, which sounds wicked when you're playing alone, but you don't have to do that if you're a beginner and want to keep it simple.

The tuning is the trickiest part for most people. It's like Drop-D Tuning, but one tone down! Let's take a look.

CGCFAD Guitar Tuning

From thickest to thinnest, the strings are tuned to CGCFAD, meaning they are all one tone below the notes in drop D (DADGBE). Notice that string 6 and string 4 are both tuned to a C. :)

💡 Elliott Smith and Nirvana songs often use this tuning. Don’t worry about tuning the notes down this far. The worst thing that can happen is that the neck moves back slightly, bringing the strings closer to the frets. If you have a low action, you might find that the strings get rattly.

You can also play this one in Drop-D Tuning. The fingering stays the same, but the key will be one tone higher. Kurt sings this one pretty low so that the higher key might suit your voice better. :)

Now you've got your guitar in tune, let's check out the chords.

Something In The Way by Nirvana – Verses

The first chord is an E power chord (444XXX). Kurt uses finger 3 to fret the three thickest strings at fret 4 and mute the other three. In the MTV video, you can see that Kurt uses finger 2 on top of finger 3 to help press the strings down.

🔥 Nail the 'Mini' Barre: Part of the trick is to bend finger 2 at the first knuckle so that it pushes down on the three thickest strings and lightly touches the rest. Grip the strings with the other fingers to help mute the rest of the strings.

Then we switch to a C5 chord (00023X). This grip looks like an open D chord in standard tuning, but we avoid playing the thinnest string. In the verses, I tend to hold the full chord but only strum the three thickest strings (000XXX) to change the dynamics.

And that's all the chords! You can play the whole song like that if you want to keep things simple. :)

Now let's look at the strumming pattern for Something In The Way!

Something In The Way by Nirvana – Guitar Strumming Pattern

Interestingly, the strumming pattern is super consistent throughout the verses. The rhythm and tempo make the song a little tricky to sing, but the key is to practice until it's automated and then relax into it.

💡 Relax! To nail the vibe of this song, your strumming has to be super chilled and you have to feel relaxed. You get to that point through practice and repetition.

The strumming pattern is:

E5        C5
D  D D U  D  D D U
1  2 + a  3  4 + a

I count this with 16th notes because it puts me in the zone. It feels so slow, which suits the song! But if you struggle with that count, try this instead:

E5        C5
D  D D U  D  D D U
1  3 4 +  1  3 4 +

The hand should always move consistently, regardless of the pattern. :) Each time we repeat this rhythm, we miss a down strum. We move our hand past the strings without hitting them:

1  +   2 + a    3  +  4 + a
D  M   D D U    D  M  D D U  

M means miss!

🚨 Once you can play the pattern, it's all about getting into the zone. It's pretty hard to play this one slow! On the Unplugged version, Kurt asks Dave Grohl to play time to help him keep a steady rhythm. It can get a little shaky. :)

You can take this further. Kurt plays 1 2+ +4+ and picks out individual notes on some beats. If you go for this, make sure you stay on time.

Strumming Dynamics for the Choruses

If you want to keep it super simple, stick with the same chords for the chorus. :) In any case, let's change the strumming. This is a great pattern that you can count with eighth notes or 16th notes:

16th notes: 1    + a  2  e + a
8th notes:  1    2 +  3  + 4 +   
            D    D U  D  U D U

But remember – you don't need to stick with the patterns on the record. Just make sure that the verses and choruses sound different.

If you play the same chords with the same rhythm for the entire song, it'll definitely get boring! Keep the verses real simple, then strum more in the choruses.

Something In The Way by Nirvana – Bigger Guitar Chords

On the MTV Unplugged version, Kurt sticks with the little power chord grips. But we can build the dynamics by using bigger chords in the choruses.

It's also nice to pick out the bassline in the chorus. It goes 6:4 (string 6, fret 4), 5:0 (string 5, fret 0), 4:0, then 5:0. If the chords change on beat 3, the rhythm of this bassline is 1 2 3 4.

🎸 Song Dynamics: the ability to vary the dynamics of your playing is a crucial skill for your guitar journey. To master it, you might like to check out my Strumming Dynamics Course.

We can play the bassline and build the dynamics using a bigger grip for E5: 44467X. Finger 1 barres the three thickest strings at fret 4, finger 3 goes down on 3:6, and finger 4 plays 2:7.

On beat 2, we switch to E5/G (X0467X) so that open string 5 rings out. Just move finger 1 to 4:4 and make sure it doesn't mute string 5. When we switch to C5 (00032X), we target string 4 on beat 3, then string 5 on beat 4:

1  + a  2  + a  3  + a  4  + a
D  D U  D  D U  D  D U  D  D U
E5    E5/G     C5     C5/G

That's all there is to the chorus. The structure of this song is straightforward: verse, chorus, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, then it finishes! It also sounds cool to add a pause at the end of the chorus before the new verse. :)

Nail The Dark Groove

We all love the menacing, slow hopelessness of the verse. It's so dark! No matter which chords you play, the verse rhythm must feel sad, miserable, and slow! It feels like you're only just maintaining the groove.

It seems ridiculous to say this, but the chorus has a little more positivity! Try to make it more uplifting. :) It makes sense to play bigger chords and add more strums.

The key to nailing this one is to have separate verses and choruses. Don't play the same chords and strumming pattern the whole way through! At least change up the strumming. You can even pick individual notes in the verses and strum the choruses.

I hope you enjoy this one. There are loads more Nirvana songs on my Songs page, so check them out. Laters. :)

🎵 Get chords, tabs, and lyrics to follow along with my tutorials with JustinGuitar Tabs!