Monthly Archives

October 2019

Lessons

Kirk’s Live Cadenza in “Fade to Black” Lesson

For the longest time, I’ve wanted to sit down and learn Kirk’s cadenza at the end of Metallica’s live performances of “Fade to Black.” I didn’t see any lessons on this anywhere else, so I thought I’d offer a lick by lick breakdown.

His performances do vary a little bit from show to show and over the years, but for the most part, Kirk plays the same thing consistently. His cadenza isn’t necessarily the craziest or hardest thing to play, but it is it’s own composition within the composition, which is something that Kirk Hammett excels achieving with his solos. A song can be a living, evolving thing, and when Metallica plays “Fade to Black,” they always include this cadenza.

I’ve broken down Kirk’s cadenza into six licks and provided a breakdown of each. You can also skip to the bottom to see a full transcription. You can see a full speed playthrough as well as lick by lick breakdown here…

Lick 1 starts off with a high bend from the D to an E repeated followed by a B Phrygian sequence and B Minor Pentatonic lick.

Lick 2 has Hammett playing in a B minor pentatonic add9 pattern over the G, but he bends from the root note B to a C#, which is a dramatic #11 over the G5. He may also be thinking of F# Minor Pentatonic in the 2nd measure here.

Lick 3 starts with a Bm sweep arpeggio followed by using notes from the A Major scale (notice the G# in beat 3) descending then finishing with an ascending A Major Pentatonic lick.

Lick 4 is simply the backing solo riff played with the band. They slow down and hit each of those accents (>) together. Notice the fermata on the last note, too. Listen to this section of live recording of “Fade to Black,” and you’ll get the idea.

Lick 5 is considerably slower as the band is holding out the B5 chord. Hammett ascends a B Major arpeggio played in two 8ves before sliding with 4ths back down to a B5 sound on the top two strings.

Lick 6 finishes the cadenza by tremolo picking while playing a slow glissando (a continuous slide upwards) to the same notes an 8ve higher before doing a slide down to the final power chord.

Here is a full transcription of Kirk’s Live Cadenza from “Fade to Black.”

Thanks for checking out this lesson! Have fun learning it, and if you post a cover, let me know. Keep shredding and woodshedding!

October 31, 2019
Lessons, Music Theory

Lydian Dominant in Metal

This is an excerpt from an original song called “Black Hole” that features the sound of LYDIAN DOMINANT naturally in it’s progression.

Lydian Dominant is a mode of jazz melodic minor, which is usually an unwieldy sound at first for most rock and metal players (myself included!). It took me quite a few years of focused listening and practice to really figure out how to apply sounds from the melodic minor modes naturally. Here is one context where this scale fits perfectly, and it’s relatively simple to employ.

Harmony-wise, the G#m is the i chord. The E7 is a bVI dominant 7th chord, and this is where E Lydian Dominant works. There’s also a D# or D#7 (V or V7 chord) which D# Phrygian Dominant works great over.

The key to using E Lydian Dominant over E7 here is TARGET NOTES. The two notes that sound the most like the scale are the b7 (D) and #11 (A#). I’ve identified these key notes as well as the roots (R) for each scale.

The A# is already in a G# natural minor scale, so it’s pretty simple to employ. To get the right sound over the E7 chord, play a G# blues scale, but get rid of the natural 5th (D#) and instead emphasize the b5 (D) and VOILA! You’re now utilizing the “Simpsons” Scale aka Lydian Dominant.

Here are the notes of both scales, notice that only one note needs to be changed.

G Natural Minor: G# A# B C# D# E F#

E Lydian Dominant: E F# G# A# B C# D

The E Lydian Dominant sound is only used over the E7 chord, but there’s enough time to get that flavor in before going back to tried and true blues and metal licks.

If G#m is too difficult of a key, try this in A minor. That progression would be Am to F7, so use F Lydian Dominant over the F7 (emphasizing the notes Eb and B). Here are the notes broken down so you can see that simple change. Simply change E to an Eb.

A Natural Minor: A B C D E F G

F Lydian Dominant: F G A B C D Eb

To find these scales, simply move the previously listed scales up a half step like so. Here is a progression to play it over and the scales that work well.

As always, let me know if you give it a try and what you come up with. Happy shredding and woodshedding!

\m/ \m/

October 24, 2019