Nirvana

Nirvana means a lot of things. In the buddhist tradition, Nirvana is the state of being free from both suffering and the cycle of rebirth. Its original word, "Nibbāna" is a Pāli word that means "blowing out" — that is, blowing out the fires of greed, hatred, and delusion.

On the other hand, in the Janaism tradition, Nirvāna is meant specifically - as pertains gnosis - that which ends the identity of the mind (citta) with empirical phenomena.

In other words, it's a state of total awareness, where you became one with the whole, or the cosmos, and your spirit is finally free... -It's how I see it, but anyway.-

And finally, Nirvana is the name of one of the most popular bands in the history of rock music. It was created in the late eighties by two guys, basically, while the other guy joined later on. These two guys were Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic, who met in their hometown of Aberdeen.

I bet a lot of you know the stories 'bout this band, so I'd not write 'bout that...

The first time I heard Nirvana was by accident, actually. And in fact, it wasn't Nirvana, it was a cover made by them, in their Unplugged series. The song I'm referring to is ''The Man Who Sold The World''... But until later on, I thought it was theirs, 'cause they made that cover on their way... If you know what I mean.

I was 10. At the time it was 1994... It was the second time I went to a guitar course, 'cause the first one I took was the previous year. And I've learned the most basic guitar chords, but I was happy I went my way with those chords. A Major, A Minor, E major, E minor, D major, D minor, and the infamous F Major.

-Guitar players who read this know what I'm talking 'bout...-

In the course I was in there were a lot of different characters. There were the ''pop-driven'' guys, there were the ''ballad'' guys, there was also a ''mellow/sweet'' girl, and there was a guy with the old ''rock n' roll'' attitude. The guy was the older one in my class, 'cause he was 16, then followed the girl who was 13, and then the lemmings of my age, who were 10 and minus.

I didn't liked the way my fellow lemmings behaved, 'cause they were sort of ''Oh I'm cool and you're not'' and, they even made some kind of, let's say, mean jokes, specially the ones who were a little bit younger -I mean, the fellas who were 8, or 7-. So I stayed far of them, to be damn honest I prefered to stay near to the younger kids, and talk or even helping them to learn some chords, 'cause of obvious reasons, while you're 8 and start to play the guitar, at first, it could be a severe pain in the ass.

I also talked with the other fellas, the sweet girl and the rock n' roll guy, who seemed to have a crush on the girl he he... I couldn't blame him 'cause, the girl was really cute, and genuinely sweet.

I'm serious folks... A short story. I remember while I was learning how to tune the guitar... my teacher taught us that usually, while guitars are brand new, they're detuned. My surprise is, that, my guitar was already tuned. I have an uncle who is a guitar player -a really good one, a shame that he doesn't compose- and, while buying me my first guitar, he tuned it.

So anyway I detuned my guitar and I wanted to learn how to tune it. My friends, that was the first mistake *Of many of course* I made as a guitar player. While I was tunning it back, the low E string came out, and almost hit me in the face. I started to cry, and the sweet girl came down and said that it was ok, and the rock n' roll guy said the same also, saying that true guitar players break their strings from time to time. And even my guitar teacher, came down and said that he was gonna replace my guitar string. He did the day after...

Note from the author: Yes, I am extremely careful and sensitive when it comes to musical instruments and music in general. I've been depressed since the day my electric guitar wrecked. And I'll be 'till I buy myself a new one.

So anyway, the day after, while my guitar was properly tuned again, and I was shown how to do it and how to prevent that accidents in the future... and also, my teacher told the whole class that we had to play something for the final day.

I was curious, so I asked my teacher ''What to play?'' and, he said that a song that we choose to play. And I said also ''Could we play something I create by myself?'' and the teacher said that it was even better.

While I wrote that folky-driven tune -It was, in fact the lyrics were 'bout the way earth was dying because of ambiental trouble, go figure he he...- I heard the rhytm section of ''The Man who sold the world'', and made an attempt to play it. Somehow, after I played my folky tune, I managed myself to play a bit of that song in the end, and my rock n' roll friend and the sweet girl were like ''Wow, the kid knows how to play''...

So, by accident, I met Nirvana... and again in the most, conflictive of all times in mankind history: the mid-teens.



-Angry music, for angry youngsters like I was back then :D.-

The first tune, I properly learned from them, was ''Smells like teen spirit''. Looking back then, I had bits of Johnny Ramone's approach to play the guitar: Play it with all your damn energies, power chords straight up and take no shit. And that's the way I played that song, which made me look like some sort of psycho boy.

But what the heck, I was psyched 'bout what I've learned... and what I've found, together with Korn, Nirvana was somehow another cathartic music I found and played, to leave all my demons away... It's Nirvana.

Maybe that's the intention behind Kurt's music and compositions, to let you leave all your demons away... All I could say is, thanks. For showing me and thousands of people 'round the world the real spirit of rock and roll, the no-compromises attitude, and determination.