Metallica (Kirk Hammet) guitar lesson, Fade to Black (part 1)
-> Go to part 2
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Time to study one of most influential metal guitarists of today: Kirk Hammet of Metallica. Countless are the guitarists who started out by learning Metallica riffs and solos (I am one of them). The Fade to Black solo is probably one of the most requested solos ever. This solo will not be to much of a hassle for the intermediate guitarist, as it does not contain many fast passages. It is a nice introduction to soloing for the beginner, since there are some easy licks to extract. Kirk's vibrato in this solo is fast and "shallow". Also, in order to play in pitch with the song, it is necessary to tune the 10 cents higher than normal 440 tuning (only if you have a sensitive sense of hearing). |
| Scale and chord theory |
| The backing guitar plays the following B minor acoustic riff. The whole solo revolves around B aeolian mode (= B minor scale) , B-C#-D-E-F#-G-A. The last two measures of the solo have the tonality of E7, and Kirk plays A minor scale, A-B-C-D-E-F-G . Kirk and James are probably unaware of this, but the choice of Am scale over E7 results in an "altered" sound with b9 #9 #5 scale degrees. If you don't understand the theory, don't worry: This kind of theoretical knowledge is not necessary to write and play metal solos. |
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|------------------------|------------------------|
|------------------------|------------------------|
|-------0----------------|-------0----------------|
|----4-----4-----4-----4-|----4-----4-----4-----4-|
|-2-----------2-----5----|-0-----------0-----5----|
|------------------------|------------------------|
|------------------------|------------------------|
|------------------------|------------------------|
|-------0----------------|-------2----------------|
|----4-----4-----4-----4-|----2-----2-----2-----2-|
|-2-----------2-----5----|-4-----------4-----0----|
|------------------------|------------------------| |
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The solo kicks in nicely with a slide:
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e|------------------------------------|
b|----------7-8/10~--8-10-12-10-8-10--|
g|----7-------------------------------|
d|-/9---9-9---------------------------|
a|------------------------------------|
e|------------------------------------|
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Kirk occasionaly "hangs" on certain notes for a while, listen closely to get the phrasing right:
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e|--------------------------------------------------|
b|--12p10p8\7h8p7---7-7h8-7---7---------------------|
g|----------------9---------9---9-7-----------------|
d|----------------------------------7--9-9----------|
a|--------------------------------------------------|
e|--------------------------------------------------|
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Yet some slides to builp up for the upcoming faster passage:
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e|---------------------------|
b|----------8p7--8/10--------|
g|-7\6--7p6------------------|
d|---------------------------|
a|---------------------------|
e|---------------------------|
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