What scale did Nirvana use?

Blues Tonality In a Major pentatonic scale, the blue note is the ♭3, and in a minor pentatonic scale it's the ♭5.

stereogum.com - A Composer Breaks Down The Music Theory Behind Nirvana's ""In Bloom""

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“In Bloom” is not the only Nirvana song to employ this unusual chromatic mediant sequence. Another notable case can be found in the verses of their 1993 single, “Heart Shaped Box,” which also uses I-♭VI-IV. And the chord sequence isn’t exclusive to Nirvana. The best-known case may be found in John Barry’s James Bond motifs, which are threaded through his scores for the franchise. Famously, his “Goldfinger” main title theme, sung by Shirley Bassey, features the iconic I-♭VI pattern. Billie Eilishs “No Time To Die” channels the same vibe, using a variation: i-♭VI-IV-V7.2,3 On “In Bloom,” Kurt Cobain played the chords not as triads (containing the root, third, and fifth), but as dyads or power chords (containing only the root and 5th). This afforded him some melodic flexibility due to the chords’ ambiguous quality, where the listener would be unsure whether what they’re hearing is Major or minor. However, the D♭ he clearly sang in the verse melody (e.g., on the word “kids”) would necessitate that the B♭ chord is actually minor — but it’s not. There’s a peculiarity to the way Cobain fretted his power chords — with his third finger barring both the 5th degree and octave above the root (i.e., the third fret on the 3rd and 4th strings, in this case). When doing this, one must be careful not to inadvertently finger the third fret of the 2nd string, which is a D♮. But Kurt wasn’t careful, and throughout the verses you can hear that he occasionally sounded the D♮, making it clear the B♭ power chord is really a Major triad. This means the D♭ he sings in the melody over that chord, every time the verse cycles back to it, is actually a blue note.

Blues Tonality

The blue note is a chromatic note added to a pentatonic (5-note) scale, which results in a hexatonic (6-note) blues scale. In a Major pentatonic scale, the blue note is the ♭3, and in a minor pentatonic scale it’s the ♭5. Notably, “the blues” idiom doesn’t observe the traditional Major/minor dichotomy that is so fundamental to Western harmonic theory. In some respects, we can think of blues tonality as being in its own category, separate from traditional European-based harmonic language. If we were to follow the rules of Western harmony, the D♭ Kurt sang over the B♭ Major chord would create a kind of “tonal rub” — a dissonant sound. But it doesn’t sound dissonant because it follows an alternate system of consonance. This alternate system combines elements of both traditional Major and minor intervals where the rigid line of demarcation between the two is blurred. Often, in blues-based music you’ll even find what we call a “neutral” third — one that’s neither strictly Major nor minor, but a little of both. A great example is Aretha Franklin’s vocal performance in “Respect.” The song is in C Major (or perhaps C Mixolydian), but when singing the lines, “What you want/ What you need,” she played with the intonation of the third by bending it variously up to E♮, down to E♭, and to several points in between. It’s what gave her performance so much vibe. Traditional Arabic music uses neutral thirds as well, as does a lot of American folk music. Some 20th Century composers like Charles Ives experimented with neutral thirds. On “In Bloom,” and throughout Nirvana’s catalog, Cobain sang neutral thirds often, scooping and bending the notes — which he was able to do without concern about clashing with Major or minor chords, given that he was working with the harmonic freedom afforded by the blues idiom.

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Secondary Dominants And The Plagal Cadence

The song’s chorus is the only time we hear some familiar chordal roles we associate with functional harmony—albeit with some tasty surprises. See Figure 5.

stereogum.com - A Composer Breaks Down The Music Theory Behind Nirvana's ""In Bloom""

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