Fade To Black Guitar Lesson Pt.1 - Metallica - Intro & Verse

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With this Fade To Black guitar lesson series we are gonna tackle one of my favorite Metallica songs in it's entirety.

Fade To Black has lots of interesting guitar parts to dig our teeth into including arpeggiated picking, fast palm muted rhythms, single note triplet sequences and fast repetitive legato licks and more!

In this Fade To Black guitar lesson series of videos I will take you through all of those cool guitar parts throughout 4 video lessons.

Take your time with some of the solo sections. For any fast guitar line you can usually isolate it and create a little repetitive exercise out of it that will help your hands get it down faster. In fact, that is pretty much what you should do with any technical hurdle that you may come across on the guitar.

Fade To Black is an absolute classic by Metallica off of their incredible Ride The Lightning album. I listened to this album almost constantly when I was a teen and this track always held a special place with me. I hope you enjoy it as well.

Good Luck! Carl..

Please support all the time, money, effort, blood, sweat and tears it requires to bring you all of these free video lessons by supporting the site as a Premium subscriber or by making a donation. Your support will help keep GuitarLessons365 the best resource of it's kind on the internet. Thanks! Carl..

[rasserusina]

Yeah sex is great but knowing that I can play this 100% correctly is just on another level.

[deepenwadhwa]

My respect for James Hetfield keeps gettting more and more everyday. Such a legend!

[scott]

I've started learning this on my acoustic 6 months ago (was playing for only 3 months then, could barely catch C or G major chord...) and I've learned it very well now, even tho it seemed impossible at the time. I wasn't playing this every day, even not more then 15 minutes probably when I would but I kept at it and now I know how to play it almost perfectly. It took me about 6 months but I'm really proud, I remember listening to this song back then and imagining that I can play it.

Even if you're complete noob like I was, just keep at it and you'll get there. Practice it VERY slowly, that way you'll get that fine coordination in your fingers for every piece you're playing, not just this one.

And ofc, thank you Carl, you're awesome!

[athindrsudev]

How the hell did James even come up with all this?

[Jonrocat]

if u haven't played in a long time this is fucking killer on soft fingers

[Emforlife]

Been practicing for nearly 3 months, now i can get through the intro + verse perfectly i still struggle a bit on the heavy part, but damn that feels better than sex, as a beginner i admit this song wouldn't have been possible for me without you, <3

[educatedcanadian]

I got this whole song down including solos thanks to carl and it sounds epic. Practice practice practice! Actually took 2 months everyday to get it down 100% proper w timing ect. Nothing in this song is really that easy.

[TeodorOline]

This might just be the hardest and most tideous work ive ever done to learn a song. THANK YOU SO MUCH for an amazing lesson! You really are brilliant. Love FROM Norway

[chrisharris]

3 months ago I tried this and could not do it. I tried it again yesterday, and today I am getting through it. Not perfectly, but the progress is amazing. I’ve used nothing more than your videos, Carl. Thank you for giving me confidence and the ability to play songs by my favorite band.

[jamesturner]

how the poop do somebody play that and sing at the same time

[nozza]

Best fade to black lesson out there, couldn’t get my head around finger picking and the rhythm from other videos but as soon as I watched this it all of a sudden clicked. Cheers for that mate!

[remolalougarou]

hi Carl Brown . I ve been learning guitar now for 3 months. never played before. read a book and that help, but you make it so easy to learn from you.
pls dont stop and a big thank you for helping me learn and play guitar.
tks carl u rock.

[mywaveinwoodswoodperfumes]

Last night I saw a video clip of one of my best friends( who passed away in the war last year) playing this riff on an acoustic guitar.
now I’m doing my best to learn the song part by part, to play it as a tribute for him. RIP

[mykolasbutvila]

Hey, Carl, could you do a tutorial on Metallica's Outlaw Torn ? Because there isn't any decent ones up on the youtube.
Guys let's upvote this, so Carl can notice this ! :)

[sunshine]

This is the best channel i can find on YouTube for tutorials....just in love with guys. Making things so simple and easy to understand. Lovely

[dansimmons]

I've been playing for over 20 years and just now learning this. In the last few years I've gotten way better taking lessons from this guy and a few others. I'm self taught and didn't have the internet in my beginning years of playing. This is great, thx Carl.

[sampat]

This Dude is a god. I have been trying to play this ever since i started playing, it just took me 2 hours to get it hands down

[BlingoDaKilla]

ive been learning guitar for maybe a year now and ive learned this entire song minus this verse and the solos because i just couldnt figure it out thru the tabs but this video made it seem so simple ive pretty much learned it after watching this video once. good stuff thank you

[jasonstallworth]

Dude, this was a great breakdown of this intro of one of the most epic songs!

[Nahor]

Awesome tutorial. I've been playing for a couple of days and when the pain in my fingers is gone and when I get a bit better I'm coming back for that verse :)