Metallica – Steel Lemon

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

The Breadfan Modulation Exercise

Some years back, I was playing in a band where we would play the final 4 bars of the Budgie song “Breadfan” (famously covered by Metallica). As a goof, the other guitar player started playing the riff one fret higher (in Fm from the original Em). I quickly saw and heard this, and reacted appropriately with the correct harmony or guitarmony as I like to call it. He then proceeded to move up the fretboard one fret at a time playing this, and the Breadfan Modulation exercise was born. What started as a goof turned into a good warmup for the band and got me thinking about applying this concept to other rock and metal songs.

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James Hetfield of Metallica

I quickly realized that not only can rock songs be practiced this way, but that they should be! This is an uncommon thing to practice in rock, but it is very commonplace in styles like blues and particularly jazz.

Some years later in my current band, we were working on an original song in G#m. The song fades out with a guitar, so just for fun, I quoted “Stairway to Heaven” on the fly, but in the key of G#. I had never actually played Stairway in G#, but I was able to improvise this because I knew the tune, and I practice this way all the time. It got a few good laughs.

So why does this matter? Practicing riffs, licks, scales, arpeggios, and yes, even full songs in different keys, or really, ALL keys improves your musicianship tenfold (or 12fold, since there are twelve pitches!). Once you get the hang of practicing things in every key, it becomes second nature. It is easy to adapt if the key of a song needs to be changed. The melody is too high? No problem, you can change the key on the fly. Forgot your capo? No sweat! Let’s play it in Eb!

Here is the Breadfan Modulation Exercise. If you can, play this with another guitar player so that you can play the guitarmonies together. Note: “Divisi” means divided. Play either the higher or lower note in the 3rd measure of each key. You can play the harmony by yourself, but it doesn’t have the clarity that harmonizing with two guitar players does when played with distortion. It still sounds cool though. If you want to be thorough, practice it these three ways…

1. Play the lower melody (D and E in measure 3, etc)

2. Play the higher melody (F# and G in measure 3, etc)

3. Play the harmonies together by yourself. This is a bit tricky, but give it a try if you like.

What next? Try applying this concept to your favorite songs. Start with simple songs, and go from there. As you move the progression around, be sure to keep track of what key you are playing in. This is crucial if you want to reap benefits in the musicianship department.

December 1, 2016