Dave Grohl surprised by daughter Violet's use of Joni Mitchell's tunings.] - Guitar | Technique

From playing on one of the biggest albums of the 1990s to forming rock powerhouse Foo Fighters and launching plenty of projects beyond them, Dave Grohl has carved a unique path in music. But he says his daughter Violet Grohl’s development as a guitarist had little to do with him.

In fact, she’s even been teaching him a thing or two.

It’s an exciting time in the Grohl household. Foo Fighters have just released their 12th studio album, Your Favorite Toy. Violet Grohl, meanwhile, is preparing to release her debut album, Be Sweet to Me, on May 29 after signing a record deal with Republic Records/Island EMI.

“I’m totally uninvolved,” Dave said earlier this year (via MusicRadar). “I’m like the dad that wants to be there and know everything, and she’s just totally doing her own thing.”

Be Sweet to Me, Violet Grohl’s debut album, comes out May 29. (Image credit: Courtesy Grandstand Media)

Based on Violet’s early singles “THUM,” “595” and “Applefish,” the singer and guitarist appears to be channeling gritty ’90s alt-rock with a dash of horror-film-score unease. But while some might assume her father was her guitar teacher, Grohl says otherwise.

“There was a lot of feeling to what she would sing when she was eight years old. And then as she got older, maybe around 13, she’s like, ‘Hey, I want to make a record,’” he said on SiriusXM Lithium (via Louder).

“And I said, ‘Okay, well, you know, you have to write songs.’ And I didn’t tell her how to do it. I think I gave her a pen and a notebook and said, ‘Just start writing stuff.’ And she did.”

Foo Fighters fans likely heard her guest appearances with the band on “Making a Fire,” from 2020’s Medicine at Midnight, and “Show Me How,” from But Here We Are (2023).

“She taught herself all of the instruments she plays by ear and just learned in her bedroom,” he continues. “There were times when I’d walk downstairs and pick up a guitar. It’d be in some freaky tuning. And I’m like, ‘What is this tuning?’ And she’d say, ‘Oh, that’s a Joni Mitchell tuning.’ And then she starts doing this intricate Joni fingerpicking thing where I’m like, ‘Where the fuck did you learn how to do that?’”

Grohl says his daughter has always been determined to follow her own path in music.

“She wanted to leave school to play music,” he explains. “I was like, ‘Just stick through it.’ Then, right when she graduated, she met with her producer, Justin Raisen, and I had nothing to do with the recording. She would come home and play me things, and she wouldn’t really ask for advice.

Now, as she’s getting deeper into stuff, we’ll sit and talk about the bigger picture of things. But I didn’t want to be like a stage dad.”
— Dave Grohl

“Now, as she’s getting deeper into stuff, we’ll sit and talk about the bigger picture of things, ’cause getting thrown into it is a lot. But I didn’t want to be like a stage dad.”

Violet struck a rich vein of inspiration in Mitchell’s tunings. The legendary songwriter developed her own guitar language — colloquially referred to as “Joni’s weird chords” — from more than 50 alternate tunings while eschewing electric-guitar convention.

Mitchell’s approach developed partly out of necessity. Her hands were weakened by childhood struggles with polio, making conventional fingerings difficult. Alternate tunings became a workaround.

“I tend to think of the top three strings as muted trumpets, or the high end of an orchestra,” she once told Guitar Player. “I think of the midrange as viola; the thumb is a very sparse, eccentric bass line.

Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters performs with his daughter Violet Grohl on The Pyramid Stage at Day 3 of Glastonbury Festival 2023 on June 23, 2023 in Glastonbury, England.

Violet and Dave perform with the Foo Fighters at the Glastonbury Festival, June 23, 2023. (Image credit: Harry Durrant/Getty Images)

“Tunewise,” she added, “the thumb can play vertically while the rest of the fingers are swinging, which gives a funny kind of Senegalese quality to my shuffle — as if my thumb is playing a monkey chant and the rest of me is swinging somewhere in the U.S.A., like Robert Johnson on Mars.”

For that matter, the guitar used on her first four records — a Martin D-28 — has a war-torn backstory, and her singular approach has inspired countless players eager to emulate her atypical style.