Megadeth – In My Darkest Hour Guitar Lesson


In this In My Darkest Hour guitar lesson video, we will take an in-depth note-for-note look at this epic classic by Megadeth. This is one of the most requested songs in GL365 history!

The tuning is standard tuning.

"In My Darkest Hour" contains so much stuff, that I will be breaking it up into two rhythm guitar videos, and a third video to cover the solos.

The intro section contains acoustic guitar that is eventually backed up with huge power chords.

This section leads into a cool chromatic guitar harmony section. I will demonstrate how to play each part individually.

As I go though the song, I will let you know the exact minute and second mark of each new section that I am teaching. This is probably the easiest way to do it since there are so many riffs.

By the end of the second lesson you we will have completed all of the rhythm guitar parts.

In the third lesson I will tackle those insane solos.

The first solo is played by Dave Mustaine and contains a lot of Mustaine's trademark lead playing style. This is one of those solos that isn't something you will recreate note-for-note. He won't play it exactly the same either every time. It is more about knowing the scale shape he is using and the two or three licks he is repeating through that scale shape. From there, you simply just let it rip. It will be hard for anyone to hear a difference since it is basically just chaos played incredibly fast.

The second solo, played by guitarist Jeff Young, is a little easier to get note-for-note except for a couple of the licks.

This solo is very challenging and requires some very fast alternate picking chops along with a heavy dose of legato licks. I will go through each solo phrase-by-phrase.

I hope you guys enjoy learning this Megadeth classic!

Carl...

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Megadeth - In My Darkest Hour Guitar Lesson - Rhythms Pt.1

Megadeth - In My Darkest Hour Guitar Lesson - Rhythms Pt.2

Megadeth - In My Darkest Hour Guitar Lesson - Solos

8 Comments

  1. Shawn Storey on January 16, 2019 at 9:33 pm

    Hi Carl I’m learning this song and at the time stamp of 5:06 you show a rift that is different then how you teach it, was this on purpose? It throws off a learning guitar player.

    • Shawn Storey on January 16, 2019 at 9:35 pm

      Forgot to add the video in question is the first rhythm video.

    • Carl Brown on January 17, 2019 at 9:17 am

      I don’t think it is different Shawn, why do you think it is? You can see many videos of Mustaine playing that riff exactly like that on YouTube.

      • John Galle-Bishop on July 7, 2019 at 5:27 am

        At the 5:43 mark on the first video, the palm muted melody riff should go 2-5-9-5-7-5 on the A-string (B/D/F#/D/E/D), but the voice over in the video skips the last two “7-5” hits on the A and instead states to go straight to 7-5 on the E string (B-A) after playing 5-9-5 on the A. The melody is actually played like the recording in the video every other time (i.e., 2-5-9-5-7-5 on A to 7-5 etc. on E).

        • Carl Brown on July 7, 2019 at 5:46 pm

          Right, I think there was a glitch there. But it is played the right way throughout besides that so hopefully anyone that has the ability to actually attempt this track will just realize it was a small mistake and I play it the right way every other time.

          • Tony Powell on May 6, 2021 at 12:06 am

            Of course you play it right. You are awesome man. I watch you, Justin, and Marty all of the time. Y’all three have taught me a decent amount of songs. This track is ridiculously hard. I can play some of it, but it’s going to take a while on this one. Lol



  2. Chandler Veenhuis on February 17, 2021 at 12:17 pm

    You’re the best, Carl. Thank you for In My Darkest Hour. Slowly working my way through all your Megadeth tunes. I appreciate your time and effort creating these lessons. They continue to make me a better and better player.

  3. Marttipan Do Situmorang on May 2, 2022 at 8:34 am

    dave’s solo?

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