Things You'll Need:
- Guitar w/humbucker pickups
- Guitar picks
- Metal/distortion/overdrive pedal
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Step 1
Plug your guitar into the amp and turn on whatever overdrive, distortion or metal pedal is being used.
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Step 2
Read my article on playing Metallica's heavy riffs to help you with achieving Metallica's sound (see Resources below).
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Step 3
The first part of the riff repeats a six-note phrase. The phrase, which starts by plucking an open low-E string, looks like this:
G:"--------------"
D:"------5-------"
A:"---7-------7--"
E:"-0-----6-5----"
That phrase is repeated four times, WITHOUT distortion. -
Step 4
Turn the distortion on and play the following phrase four times:
A:"-------------------7"
E:"-0-0-0-0-0-0-0--" -
Step 5
Following that, play this riff four times:
D:"------------------3"
A:"-----7------------3"
E:"-0-0---6-0-0-0--1"
Be sure to palm mute the 0's on the low-E string. -
Step 6
Play this final phrase a total of eight times. It is essentially the same as in Step #5, but instead of going to the open E string after hitting the 6th fret, you hit the 5th fret and then proceed to the open E.
D:"------------------3"
A:"-----7------------3"
E:"-0-0---6-5-0-0--1" -
Step 7
Listen to the song to get the exact timing of everything.







