Metallica – The Four Horsemen Guitar Lesson

In this The Four Horsemen guitar lesson video series, I will show you how to play this metal classic off of Metallica's debut album Kill 'Em All.

We will be using standard tuning just as they did on the original recording.

In the first video lesson, I will show you how to play all of the rhythm guitar parts. Most of these riffs were written by Dave Mustaine before his split with Metallica. There are some really killer riffs as well!

The opening main riff uses a slightly tricky alternate picking technique, but is still pretty easy compared to most of Metallica's guitar work.

Of all of the riffs in the song, the hardest of all is the bridge riff that occurs a couple minutes into the song. You will also hear that riff being played under the second guitar solo.

I will let you know in the video lesson, what the minute and second mark of each new riff is that I am teaching, so you won't get lost.

In the second video, I will tackle Kirk Hammett's first guitar solo. Once again, in interviews, Hetfield and Hammett have stated that Dave Mustaine had most of the solos already worked out. So when Kirk Hammett recorded them, he at least started the solo with Mustaine's part and would then move into doing his own thing. How much of it is written by Mustaine and how much by Hammett is anybody's guess.

This first solo occurs over the slower melodic section that was written after Kirk Hammett joined the band so most likely he is the one that wrote this solo. When Metallica plays "The Four Horsemen" live, they usually omit this melodic section and solo. It is a moderately difficult solo for the first-half, but Kirk really ramps up the speed in the second half. The good thing about these fast sections is that they all contain repeated licks or phrases that can be broken down and practiced easily allowing you to get them up to speed quickly.

In the third and final video lesson, I will take you note-for-note through Kirk Hammett's second guitar solo.

This solo is one of those breakneck speed solos from beginning to end. However, the fast sections once again can be broken down into repeated phrases that will allow you to not only get them up to speed more quickly, but also make them much more easy to memorize. I  will show you how to practice them in the video lesson. 🙂

Good Luck!

Carl...

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Metallica - The Four Horsemen Guitar Lesson - Pt.1 - Riffs

Metallica - The Four Horsemen Guitar Lesson - Pt.2 - 1st Solo

Metallica - The Four Horsemen Guitar Lesson - Pt.3 - 2nd Solo