How to Play the "Enter Sandman" Riff

"Enter Sandman" is Metallica's most popular song. Though some will argue its rank next to some of their other songs, the album in which it appeared is the highest selling metal album of all time, largely due the song. This tutorial will teach you how to play one of the most famous guitar riffs of all time.

Things You'll Need

• Guitar w/humbucker pickups
• Guitar picks
• Metal/distortion/overdrive pedal

Instructions

1. Plug your guitar into the amp and turn on whatever overdrive, distortion or metal pedal is being used.

2. Read my article on playing Metallica's heavy riffs to help you with achieving Metallica's sound (see Resources below).

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.

4. Turn the distortion on and play the following phrase four times:

   A:"-------------------7"
   E:"-0-0-0-0-0-0-0--"

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.

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"

7. Listen to the song to get the exact timing of everything.

Tips & Warnings

• Practice, practice, practice. This is simple for Metallica, but can still be tricky.

Resources

• How to Play Heavy Metallica Riffs