How to play master of puppets
How to play master of puppets
Complete Guide to Metallica ‘Master of Puppets’
\n Everything you need to know about the story behind the song, amp and pedal settings as well as used guitar techniques.
\n \n \n \n \n \n \n Udjine \n \n \n \n \n \n
DUM. DUM DUM DUUUUUUUUM! I’m sure you all know what song it is. You asked for this and we’ll give it to you.
Metallica \»Master of Puppets\»
Writers: Cliff Burton, Kirk Hammett, James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich
Producers: Metallica, Flemming Rasmussen
Album: Master of Puppets (UG Score 9.5)
Recorded: October-December 1985
Released: July 2, 1986
Label: New Electric Way, Music for Nations, Elektra
Genre: Thrash metal
Length: 8:36
Additional Information:
#3 in VH1 the greatest heavy metal song ever.
In March 2005, Q magazine placed it at number 22 in its 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks list.
Martin Popoff’s book The Top 500 Heavy Metal Songs of All Time ranked the song at number 2.
The song also ranked number 1 on a 100 Greatest Riffs poll conducted by Total Guitar magazine.
Story behind the song
The title track to Metallica’s 1986 album, \»Master of Puppets\» highlights the negative consequences of the use of alcohols and drugs, like addiction and inevitable death. It clearly distinguishes heavy metal from hard rock. If G’NR were to write a song about drugs, like Mr. Brownstone and Nightrain, they would put more emphasize on the enjoyment aspect of it.
At more than eight minutes long, the thrash metal masterpiece displays drugs as the master and us as the puppets — in fact, the thing mimics the ever-repeating pattern of an addict. It kicks off with that remarkable three-note descending riff and chugs ahead with the excited, expectant feel of a scouring junkie in seeking drug or the money with which to buy it. At three or so minutes in arrives a beautiful, calm guitar solo — the pleasure of the high itself. Then we’re back on the hunt. The numbness is gone and the \»MASTER. MASTER.\» is in control yet again.
Music Videos
Live version
\»Master of Puppets\» is the band’s most played song of all time, first played on December 31, 1985, at San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Auditorium for a crowd of 7,000.
The song has been performed live more than 1500 times.
Live on the Howard Stern Show in 2016.
Behind the scenes
This video has featured all four current Metallica members explaining what the monumental album \»Master of Puppets\» meant to them.
The video, dedicated to 30th anniversary of \»Master of Puppets\» album, recorded in 2016.
Famous covers
\»Master of Puppets\» has been covered by multiple artists playing various instruments.
Sum 41 live cover.
Viktoriya Yermolyeva performs \»Master of Puppets\» on a piano in Zurich, February 19, 2011.
Apocalyptica performs \»Master of Puppets\» live in 2006.
Gear and settings
Guitars
Kirk Hammett
Jackson Flying V \»Randy Rhoads\» has black, neck-through body, Micro EMG 81 humbuckers, Tune-O-Matic bridge, 2 volume controls, 1 tonality control and Gotoh Tuners.
Kirk started playing it after recording \»Kill ‘Em All\», and used it during recording sessions of \»Master of Puppets\» album, which he almost completely recorded with this guitar. Kirk got this guitar directly from the Jackson factory and had to wait two hours for the adhesive to finish drying so that it was solid before taking it with him.
Gibson Flying V (UG Score 8) has black finishing with white pickguard. It was equipped with 2 stock pickups (which were changed to EMG 81s in 1987), a set neck, 2 volume controls, 1 tone control.
Was the main recording guitar for the first four albums.
James Hetfield
Jackson King V Custom \»Kill Bon Jovi\» (1985) was used by James for the recording of the album Master of Puppets in 1985, and occasionally during the subsequent tour.
The guitar actually predates Dave Mustaine’s first Jackson – who is one of the people responsible for promoting Jackson guitars in the early years and making them popular. James’ King V was made on May 24th, 1985, and featured white body finish, Tune-o-matic bridge, Grover Tuners, and two Seymour Duncan Invader pickups (presumably requested by James himself). In 1987 James removed the original pickups and replaced them with EMGs 81/60. Few months after that, the neck on it was broken and James just didn’t bother repairing it.
Jackson company wanted James to promote their guitars, to which James said \»no\» because he preferred Explorers. Eventually, he made his decision clear by adding a sticker saying “Kill Bon Jovi” over the guitar’s original logo on the headstock.
Cliff Burton
Cliff Burton chose Aria SB-Black’N Gold I as his partner and played it on the band’s first three studio albums.
This bass guitar became the basis of Aria Pro II Cliff Burton Signature Bass, released at NAMM 2013 created in homage to Burton.
Amps and effects
Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield
Mesa-Boogie Mark IIC+ amp (re-wired as a pre-amp) has the reputation in vintage circles as one of the best Boogies, next to the classic Mark I, due to their much-praised rhythm channels, and to a lesser degree their lead channels.
The Mark IIC featured a quieter foot switching system and a new mod to the reverb circuit. The Mark IIC+ was the last of the Mark II series and featured a more sensitive lead channel and, more importantly, an improved circuitry in the effects loop.
100W Marshall JCM800 2203 100 watt power amp is one of the most highly respected 100W Marshall heads in the company’s long history. Developing from the legendary Plexi head, it was one of the first Marshall amps to feature a master volume control. The essence of simplicity, the JCM800 is a one-channel, all-valve amp with no reverb or effects.
For Master of Puppets, both James and Kirk started using Mesa Boogie amps. They were both playing through Mesa Boogie Mark IIC+ slaved into modded 100W Marshall JCM800s used on the previous album. Marshall 4×12 cabinets were their choice for cabs.
Kirk Hammett said in an interview to GuitarWorld in 1991:
A lot of people think I actually came into my own sound on that song. That had everything to do with buying Mesa/Boogie Mark II-C heads. Boogie made those heads for a short time in the mid-Eighties and only made a limited amount of them. They moved on after that, and they haven’t really been able to recapture that sound since — I don’t know if they ever tried or not. But there’s something about Boogie Mark II-C heads that were really unique and very individual in their gain stages and overall sound. Most of Master of Puppets was tracked with Boogie heads and Marshall heads combined, and I used my Gibson Flying V and my Jackson.
Cliff Burton
Cliff Burton mostly used Mesa Boogie and Ampeg cabs, but it’s hard to say which of these he was using during the recording of \»Master of Puppets.\»
Mesa Boogie 4×12 Cabinets
Ampeg SVT-1540HE Classic Series Enclosure
Amp settings
Tablature
These are top tabs rated by the UG community:
Tuning
Guitars: Standard tuning (E A D G B E)
Bass: Standard tuning (E A D G)
Song key
The song is played in E minor key.
Techniques
Guitar parts of \»Master of Puppets\» are almost entirely played with downstroked eighth notes at a tempo of 212 BPM (about 7 downstrokes per second).
There’s a lot of changing meter in this song, and riffs in the A section have several measures of 4/4 succeeded by what is usually transcribed as a single measure of 5/8.
The problem is that on the album version of the track and in some live recordings, it doesn’t really feel like an even 5/8 — the rhythm is consistently off enough that if you try to play strict eighth notes, you end up not being with the band. A lot of researchers focus on “micro timing deviations,” but most of this research deals with rubato (slowing down and speeding up in the course of a phrase) or differences in timing between a solo instrument and the accompanying ensemble.
This 5/8 measure disorders the song’s pulse as much as possible. Even if the band played the eighth notes in straight timing, the quarter note pulse and half-note pulse would both be disrupted by the odd length of the 5/8 measure. The 5/8 measure places emphases on the second and fourth eighth notes, against the pulse of the preceding 4/4 measures, but then the following measures continue to reinforce this new location of the beat.
5/8 notation is supposed to mean five equally timed eighth notes, so does this performance of “Master of Puppets” count as 5/8 when one eighth note is regularly 30% longer than the rest?
That isn’t a question that can really be answered completely — on the one hand, 5/8 can be the easiest notation to read when learning how to play the song yourself, but on the other hand it’s not exactly what’s in the recording, and the shift makes a big difference in how the riff feels. Try playing the eighth notes as straight as you can, and you’ll quickly see that this sudden addition of extra time makes Metallica’s performance is really significant.
Song breakdown
James Hetfield stated in an interview to GuitarWorld in 1991:
I think we wanted to write another song like \»Creeping Death,\» with open chords carried by the vocals and a real catchy chorus. On Master of Puppets (album), we started getting into the longer, more orchestrated songs. It was more of a challenge to write a long song that didn’t seem long. The riff for that song was pretty messy — constantly moving. It works good live. People love to scream \»Master!\» a couple of times.
\»Master of Puppets\» follows the large-scale form of AABA song structure. The overall form of \»Master of Puppets\» is rather complex: \»Master of Puppets\» includes eight different riffs plus two riff variations in addition to non-riff-based instrumental passages.
The introduction consists of three riffs and a variation of one of these riffs (riffs 1, 2, 2* and 3). This introduction highlights the rhythm guitar more than usual by excluding regular drum patterns for the first 30 seconds.
Intro requires an advanced picking hand technique. If you don’t have very much experience with this type of rapid muted downstroke metal thrashing, simply try and get the coordination down first. As you slowly speed the riff up, you need to pay close attention to any tension that may arise in your picking hand wrist, forearm and shoulder. Use small relaxed movements.
The left hand is required to jump up and down the fretboard fret-by-fret keeping up with the right hand. It’s quite challenging to keep them synchronized. Also, pay close attention to the power chords at the end of the intro riffs.
The second half of the intro goes into a riff that is easier to play because it is played in one area of the fretboard and the right-hand picking is slightly slower. For these riffs (2 and 2*) you can use spider riff, power chords slides are also used intensively.
The first A section
The formal structure of its A-section is lengthy and includes a verse, a pre-chorus, and two choruses. Three different riffs are used during the verse-chorus rotations plus one variation (riffs 3, 3*, 4 and 5).
Verses are played with riff 3, where you need to use techniques, that were used in the second half of the intro.
For pre-choruses, they use a variation of riff 3 (riff 3*).
Riff 4 is played in this chorus, and for correct performance, you need to use hammer-ons and vibratos at the end of every section of this riff.
The distinctive feature of riff 5 in this chorus is that the most of the power chords here aren’t muted.
Interlude 1 uses riff 2*, which was used in the intro.
The second A section
The second A section has the same structure as the first one, except short vocal transition before the B section.
This transition goes only with echoing vocals.
The B section
The B section of \»Master of Puppets\» is quite long. It includes 2 solo parts, a bridge, and five riffs with one variation (riffs 2, 3, 3*, 6, 7, 8). The great variety and contrasting moods in the B section make \»Master of Puppets\» one of most artistic songs of Metallica.
The first solo of Master of Puppets is played by James, even though he is the rhythm guitarist and vocalist, while Kirk Hammett, the lead guitarist, plays the rhythm during the first solo. However, during the two harmonic solos, James plays the lower harmony while Kirk plays the higher harmony.
The opening instrumental passages of the B-section are supported by a \»clean\» chord progression, played by James. Clean part involves using hammer-on and pull-offs.
After few instrumental passages, there goes harmony solo, played by both guitarists.
Then James Hetfield’s solo goes, supported by the clean instrumental passages, played by Kirk Hammett.
After that harmony solo goes again.
In harmony solos and James Hetfield’s solo, you should use hammer-ons and pull-offs, bends and releases, and vibrato.
Then there goes a relatively short transition to interlude.
Riff 6 is played in interlude and in the following bridge and consists of muted power chords.
Kirk Hammett’s solo is full of blistering legato, alternate picking, tremolo picking, screaming harmonics, and sequences. It is a true workout for the metal guitar lover because you should use almost every kind of techniques to perform this solo.
Kirk Hammett commented this solo in an interview to GuitarWorld in 1991:
I used my Jackson Randy Rhoads V for this solo. When you listen to the solo, there’s this weird sound right after the mellow part where it sounds like I’m hitting a superhigh note in the midst of my phrasing, like I’m fretting the string against the pickup. Well, what happened was, I had accidentally pulled the string off the fretboard! You know how you take an E string, you pull it down toward the floor away from the neck? I accidentally pulled down on the string, and it fretted out on the side of the fretboard. We heard it back, and I was like, \»That’s brilliant! We’ve gotta keep that!\» Of course, I’ve never been able to reproduce that since; it was like a magic moment that was captured on tape. That was one of my most favorite things about that guitar solo. I thought I had screwed the solo up by accidentally pulling on the string, but once I heard it back, I thought it sounded great. That was definitely a keeper!
During the solo, James plays the rhythm part, which is presented by successive riffs 3 and 3*.
Riffs 7 and 8 are played by both guitarists and lead to short interlude.
Riff 2 is played along the interlude 3.
The third A section
To add to the complexity of the A-section, the pre-chorus is altered in this section, but riffs stay the same.
The closing section draws on the riffs from the introduction. The closing section of \»Master of Puppets\» does not build in energy by adding structurally significant units. This is typical of Metallica’s closing sections.
Recommended lessons
Main riffs by Kirk Hammett
Intro
Check intro riffs in this note-for-note intro lesson.
Rhythms
Check the rhythm riffs, which are used in the A sections of \»Master of Puppets.\»
Harmony Solo
In this lesson, you can learn how to play the serene harmony guitar solo note-for-note, James Hetfield’s guitar solo and the clean arpeggio guitar rhythms.
Main Solo
Check the riff behind the bridge part of the song and, of course, Kirk Hammett’s main guitar solo. It’s one of the finest Kirk Hammett’s moments.
Interlude
Check how to play riffs 7 and 8.
Bass part
Leave the songs you would like to see in the next issue of our Complete Guide rubric in the comment section below. Remember, you decide what song is going to be next!
\n \n Difficulty of Master of Puppets?
yeah i used to alternate pick everything but it sounded \»choppy\» so i learned to only downstroke everything
lol kinda funny
yes they do. They do it live and say it in interviews.
part is the so-called \»spider riff\».
part is the so-called \»spider riff\».
Well you learn something new everyday. I’ve been using various patterns like that for years, I didn’t realise that was the spider riff.
I was thinking if it actually was the spider riff when I was posting, having remembered some sort of tutorial with Dave Mustaine saying how he created the spider riff, but that was something different.
The section I referred to is the spider riff.
\n Jesus. There’s a foot fetish club now?
Anyhow, Master of Puppets is easy to play until you get to ze spider riff. If you’re a beginner, then that part will come quite hard to you (it did to me). The rythm bit of the interlude is pretty easy, it’s reptitive and comes naturally if you know your chords. The lead bit is easy at first but gets relatively harder. Then, of course, the solo. I still haven’t been able to nail the solo completely (i’ve honestly never tried to learn any of it except the first few notes until the pinch harmonics and I figured out the tremolo picking myself) but other than that the song is relatively easy. I recommend it for speedbuilding and newbie alternate picking.
I read in an interview that Kirk picks this part
\»down down up down down up down down up\»
and James does all down strokes. I use all down strokes.
Contents
Story behind the song
The title track to Metallica’s 1986 album, \»Master of Puppets\» highlights the negative consequences of the use of alcohols and drugs, like addiction and inevitable death. It clearly distinguishes heavy metal from hard rock. If G’NR were to write a song about drugs, like Mr. Brownstone and Nightrain, they would put more emphasize on the enjoyment aspect of it.
At more than eight minutes long, the thrash metal masterpiece displays drugs as the master and us as the puppets — in fact, the thing mimics the ever-repeating pattern of an addict. It kicks off with that remarkable three-note descending riff and chugs ahead with the excited, expectant feel of a scouring junkie in seeking drug or the money with which to buy it. At three or so minutes in arrives a beautiful, calm guitar solo — the pleasure of the high itself. Then we’re back on the hunt. The numbness is gone and the \»MASTER. MASTER.\» is in control yet again.
Music videos
Live version
\»Master of Puppets\» is the band’s most played song of all time, first played on December 31, 1985, at San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Auditorium for a crowd of 7,000.
The song has been performed live more than 1500 times.
Live on the Howard Stern Show in 2016.
Behind the scenes
This video has featured all four current Metallica members explaining what the monumental album \»Master of Puppets\» meant to them.
The video, dedicated to 30th anniversary of \»Master of Puppets\» album, recorded in 2016.
Famous covers
\»Master of Puppets\» has been covered by multiple artists playing various instruments.
Sum 41 live cover.
Viktoriya Yermolyeva performs \»Master of Puppets\» on a piano in Zurich, February 19, 2011.
Apocalyptica performs \»Master of Puppets\» live in 2006.
Gear and settings
Guitars
Kirk Hammett
Jackson Flying V \»Randy Rhoads\» has black, neck-through body, Micro EMG 81 humbuckers, Tune-O-Matic bridge, 2 volume controls, 1 tonality control and Gotoh Tuners.
Kirk started playing it after recording \»Kill ‘Em All\», and used it during recording sessions of \»Master of Puppets\» album, which he almost completely recorded with this guitar. Kirk got this guitar directly from the Jackson factory and had to wait two hours for the adhesive to finish drying so that it was solid before taking it with him.
Gibson Flying V (UG Score 8) has black finishing with white pickguard. It was equipped with 2 stock pickups (which were changed to EMG 81s in 1987), a set neck, 2 volume controls, 1 tone control.
Was the main recording guitar for the first four albums.
James Hetfield
Jackson King V Custom \»Kill Bon Jovi\» (1985) was used by James for the recording of the album Master of Puppets in 1985, and occasionally during the subsequent tour.
The guitar actually predates Dave Mustaine’s first Jackson – who is one of the people responsible for promoting Jackson guitars in the early years and making them popular. James’ King V was made on May 24th, 1985, and featured white body finish, Tune-o-matic bridge, Grover Tuners, and two Seymour Duncan Invader pickups (presumably requested by James himself). In 1987 James removed the original pickups and replaced them with EMGs 81/60. Few months after that, the neck on it was broken and James just didn’t bother repairing it.
Jackson company wanted James to promote their guitars, to which James said \»no\» because he preferred Explorers. Eventually, he made his decision clear by adding a sticker saying “Kill Bon Jovi” over the guitar’s original logo on the headstock.
Cliff Burton
Cliff Burton chose Aria SB-Black’N Gold I as his partner.
This bass guitar became the basis of Aria Pro II Cliff Burton Signature Bass, released at NAMM 2013 created in homage to Burton.
Amps and effects
Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield
Mesa-Boogie Mark IIC+ amp (re-wired as a pre-amp) has the reputation in vintage circles as one of the best Boogies, next to the classic Mark I, due to their much-praised rhythm channels, and to a lesser degree their lead channels.
The Mark IIC featured a quieter foot switching system and a new mod to the reverb circuit. The Mark IIC+ was the last of the Mark II series and featured a more sensitive lead channel and, more importantly, an improved circuitry in the effects loop.
100W Marshall JCM800 2203 100 watt power amp is one of the most highly respected 100W Marshall heads in the company’s long history. Developing from the legendary Plexi head, it was one of the first Marshall amps to feature a master volume control. The essence of simplicity, the JCM800 is a one-channel, all-valve amp with no reverb or effects.
For Master of Puppets, both James and Kirk started using Mesa Boogie amps. They were both playing through Mesa Boogie Mark IIC+ slaved into modded 100W Marshall JCM800s used on the previous album. Marshall 4×12 cabinets were their choice for cabs.
Kirk Hammett said in an interview to GuitarWorld in 1991:
A lot of people think I actually came into my own sound on that song. That had everything to do with buying Mesa/Boogie Mark II-C heads. Boogie made those heads for a short time in the mid-Eighties and only made a limited amount of them. They moved on after that, and they haven’t really been able to recapture that sound since — I don’t know if they ever tried or not. But there’s something about Boogie Mark II-C heads that were really unique and very individual in their gain stages and overall sound. Most of Master of Puppets was tracked with Boogie heads and Marshall heads combined, and I used my Gibson Flying V and my Jackson. [1]
Cliff Burton
Cliff Burton mostly used Mesa Boogie and Ampeg cabs, but it’s hard to say which of these he was using during the recording of \»Master of Puppets.\»
Mesa Boogie 4×12 Cabinets
Ampeg SVT-1540HE Classic Series Enclosure
Amp settings
Tuning
Guitars: standard tuning (E A D G B E)
Bass: standard tuning (E A D G)
Song key
The song is played in E minor key.
Techniques
Guitar parts of \»Master of Puppets\» are almost entirely played with downstroked eighth notes at a tempo of 212 BPM (about 7 downstrokes per second).
There’s a lot of changing meter in this song, and riffs in the A section have several measures of 4/4 succeeded by what is usually transcribed as a single measure of 5/8.
The problem is that on the album version of the track and in some live recordings, it doesn’t really feel like an even 5/8 — the rhythm is consistently off enough that if you try to play strict eighth notes, you end up not being with the band. A lot of researchers focus on \»micro timing deviations,\» but most of this research deals with rubato (slowing down and speeding up in the course of a phrase) or differences in timing between a solo instrument and the accompanying ensemble.
This 5/8 measure disorders the song’s pulse as much as possible. Even if the band played the eighth notes in straight timing, the quarter note pulse and half-note pulse would both be disrupted by the odd length of the 5/8 measure. The 5/8 measure places emphases on the second and fourth eighth notes, against the pulse of the preceding 4/4 measures, but then the following measures continue to reinforce this new location of the beat.
5/8 notation is supposed to mean five equally timed eighth notes, so does this performance of “Master of Puppets” count as 5/8 when one eighth note is regularly 30% longer than the rest?
That isn’t a question that can really be answered completely — on the one hand, 5/8 can be the easiest notation to read when learning how to play the song yourself, but on the other hand it’s not exactly what’s in the recording, and the shift makes a big difference in how the riff feels. Try playing the eighth notes as straight as you can, and you’ll quickly see that this sudden addition of extra time makes Metallica’s performance is really significant.
Song breakdown
James Hetfield stated in an interview to GuitarWorld in 1991:
I think we wanted to write another song like \»Creeping Death,\» with open chords carried by the vocals and a real catchy chorus. On Master of Puppets (album), we started getting into the longer, more orchestrated songs. It was more of a challenge to write a long song that didn’t seem long. The riff for that song was pretty messy — constantly moving. It works good live. People love to scream \»Master!\» a couple of times.
\»Master of Puppets\» follows the large-scale form of AABA song structure. The overall form of \»Master of Puppets\» is rather complex: \»Master of Puppets\» includes eight different riffs plus two riff variations in addition to non-riff-based instrumental passages. [2]
The introduction consists of three riffs and a variation of one of these riffs (riffs 1, 2, 2* and 3). This introduction highlights the rhythm guitar more than usual by excluding regular drum patterns for the first 30 seconds.
Intro requires an advanced picking hand technique. If you don’t have very much experience with this type of rapid muted downstroke metal thrashing, simply try and get the coordination down first. As you slowly speed the riff up, you need to pay close attention to any tension that may arise in your picking hand wrist, forearm and shoulder. Use small relaxed movements.
The left hand is required to jump up and down the fretboard fret-by-fret keeping up with the right hand. It’s quite challenging to keep them synchronized. Also, pay close attention to the power chords at the end of the intro riffs.
The second half of the intro goes into a riff that is easier to play because it is played in one area of the fretboard and the right-hand picking is slightly slower. For these riffs (2 and 2*) you can use spider riff, power chords slides are also used intensively.
The first A section
The formal structure of its A-section is lengthy and includes a verse, a pre-chorus, and two choruses. Three different riffs are used during the verse-chorus rotations plus one variation (riffs 3, 3*, 4 and 5).
Verses are played with riff 3, where you need to use techniques, that were used in the second half of the intro.
For pre-choruses, they use a variation of riff 3 (riff 3*).
Riff 4 is played in this chorus, and for correct performance, you need to use hammer-ons and vibratos at the end of every section of this riff.
The distinctive feature of riff 5 in this chorus is that the most of the power chords here aren’t muted.
Interlude 1 uses riff 2*, which was used in the intro.
The second A section
The second A section has the same structure as the first one, except short vocal transition before the B section.
This transition goes only with echoing vocals.
The B section
The B section of \»Master of Puppets\» is quite long. It includes 2 solo parts, a bridge, and five riffs with one variation (riffs 2, 3, 3*, 6, 7, 8). The great variety and contrasting moods in the B section make \»Master of Puppets\» one of most artistic songs of Metallica.
The first solo of Master of Puppets is played by James, even though he is the rhythm guitarist and vocalist, while Kirk Hammett, the lead guitarist, plays the rhythm during the first solo. However, during the two harmonic solos, James plays the lower harmony while Kirk plays the higher harmony.
The opening instrumental passages of the B-section are supported by a \»clean\» chord progression, played by James. Clean part involves using hammer-on and pull-offs.
After few instrumental passages, there goes harmony solo, played by both guitarists.
Then James Hetfield’s solo goes, supported by the clean instrumental passages, played by Kirk Hammett.
After that harmony solo goes again.
In harmony solos and James Hetfield’s solo, you should use hammer-ons and pull-offs, bends and releases, and vibrato.
Then there goes a relatively short transition to interlude.
Riff 6 is played in interlude and in the following bridge and consists of muted power chords.
Kirk Hammett’s solo is full of blistering legato, alternate picking, tremolo picking, screaming harmonics, and sequences. It is a true workout for the metal guitar lover because you should use almost every kind of techniques to perform this solo.
Kirk Hammett commented this solo in an interview to GuitarWorld in 1991:
I used my Jackson Randy Rhoads V for this solo. When you listen to the solo, there’s this weird sound right after the mellow part where it sounds like I’m hitting a superhigh note in the midst of my phrasing, like I’m fretting the string against the pickup. Well, what happened was, I had accidentally pulled the string off the fretboard! You know how you take an E string, you pull it down toward the floor away from the neck? I accidentally pulled down on the string, and it fretted out on the side of the fretboard. We heard it back, and I was like, \»That’s brilliant! We’ve gotta keep that!\» Of course, I’ve never been able to reproduce that since; it was like a magic moment that was captured on tape. That was one of my most favorite things about that guitar solo. I thought I had screwed the solo up by accidentally pulling on the string, but once I heard it back, I thought it sounded great. That was definitely a keeper! [3]
During the solo, James plays the rhythm part, which is presented by successive riffs 3 and 3*.
Riffs 7 and 8 are played by both guitarists and lead to short interlude.
Riff 2 is played along the interlude 3.
The third A section
To add to the complexity of the A-section, the pre-chorus is altered in this section, but riffs stay the same.
The closing section draws on the riffs from the introduction. The closing section of \»Master of Puppets\» does not build in energy by adding structurally significant units. This is typical of Metallica’s closing sections.
Recommended lessons
Main riffs by Kirk Hammett
Intro
Check intro riffs in this note-for-note intro lesson.
Rhythms
Check the rhythm riffs, which are used in the A sections of \»Master of Puppets.\»
Harmony Solo
In this lesson, you can learn how to play the serene harmony guitar solo note-for-note, James Hetfield’s guitar solo and the clean arpeggio guitar rhythms.
Main Solo
Check the riff behind the bridge part of the song and, of course, Kirk Hammett’s main guitar solo. It’s one of the finest Kirk Hammett’s moments.
Is Master Of Puppets Hard To Play? Here’s How To Learn It
Master Of Puppets is perhaps one of the most recognizable metal song ever recorded.
Have you ever thought about why does everyone talk about Master Of Puppets, in terms of guitar playing? Is it hard to play?
Master Of Puppets is hard to play. That’s because of its fast tempo (212 BPM) and downstrokes. It’s all downstrokes, for which you have to have very strong wrist and advanced sense of rhythm.
There ain’t a metal guitarist that didn’t even attempt to play it. Master Of Puppets is not just a metal anthem, it’s also an indicator of how good your guitar playing is.
Here’s what makes it so hard to master (no pun intended).
1. Downstrokes
Downstrokes are signature heavy and trash metal technique. You cannot consider yourself a metal guitarist if you haven’t mastered downstroke playing style yet.
Master Of Puppets is especially emphasizing downstroke playing, as it’s one of the best examples of James Hetfield’s famouse playing style. It’s played all in downstrokes, and that’s what is making it so hard.
Downstrokes are hard for someone who’s a guitar beginner, due to several reasons:
Palm muting is essential for performing downstrokes. Why? It’s simple. If you don’t use your palm to mute the tone, your downstrokes will sound noisy, muddy and poor.
That’s why you just have to have palm muting technique mastered.
How To Learn To Palm Mute Strings Properly?
Place your hand on the strings. Slowly start to pick one string, for example low E. While you’re downstroking low E string, try to change the position and pressure of the palm you’re exerting on your strings.
The crucial thing is to find out the perfectly balanced palm mute. Palm mute that’s too loose and weak will result in the noisy, and muddy tone of your strings.
The tone of the strings that are too weakly palm muted will ring out too much.
Palm mute that’s too strong will result in the tone that’s too cut out. In other words, the strings that are too strongly palm muted won’t ring as much as you want them to.
When you downstroke, it’s important to save as much energy as possible. Picking depth is the distance traveled by your hand every time you pick the string.
Try to reduce this movement as much as possible. That way you’ll save a significant amount of energy that’s needed to perform downstrokes properly and in tempo.
Downstroking Requires Patience
Downstroking requires a lot of time and patience. The crucial thing is to start very slow, and then gradually begin to increase the metronome.
Check out in details how to practice downstroke technique.
2. Fast Tempo
Master of Puppets have tempo of around 212 BPM. Metallica used to play it even faster in the 80’s.
With its fast tempo, one has to be advanced guitar player in order to follow the tempo with ease.
In order to play it with ease, you’ll almost certainly have to slow down the metronome and practice until you gradually get to the original tempo of playing.
3. Advanced Rhythm Patterns
Most classical metal songs have an usual 4/4 rhythm pattern. Master of Puppets have that pattern also, but there’s more to it, once James Hetfield’s starts to sing.
There’s also a 5/8 rhythm pattern, and 2/4 pattern mixed with a regular 4/4 pattern.
That means that the rhythm in the song isn’t simple and straightforward. This advanced rhythm is part of what makes Master of Puppets hard to play. Advanced rhythmic patterns are something beginners struggle to grasp and master.
Check out the article I wrote about what makes a difference between an intermediate guitar player and a beginner.
4. Soloing
There are two main solos in Master of Puppets. First solo is slower, melodic, solo played in harmony with two guitars.
If you listen to studio version of the song, that solo starts at around 3:50. But that particular solo isn’t that hard to play.
Second solo is much harder. It starts at around 5:42 (studio version). Why is it hard to play that solo?
It’s because it employs a few of the advanced guitar techniques. First, you have to have strong fingers in order to produce a good tone when using hammer on’s and pull off’s.
Second, you have to develop a very fast picking speed, which takes practice.
Third, you have to master a bending technique, as this solo employs very advanced string bending licks. If you struggle with string bending, I recommend you to check the article from this page about it.
And lastly, you have to have a very good whammy bar technique, as this solo employs a several “dive bombs” with a whammy bar.
5. Sound Output Adjustment
Suppose that you’ve just learned to play Master of Puppets from beginning to the end. You plug your guitar in the amp and start to play.
All of a sudden, you notice how the sound coming from the amp is muddy and bad. A part of what makes this song hard to play is the fact that it’s hard to adjust the amp settings in order to make the sound good.
When you downpick through the main riff, it just sounds noisy and muddy. The key is to find the right setting of the tone and volume pots both on your guitar and your amp.
If you struggle with this issue, I recommend you to watch this cool video on how to get the exact sound as it is on Master of Puppets whole album.
Final Words
I hope this article gave you an insight about how to play this legendary song. If it helped you, I’m more than happy about it.
It is always a pleasure to help my fellow guitar brothers on their guitar journey!
Anyway, don’t forget to check out some other interesting articles from this site about various guitar topics and issues!
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\n ya, its 220. if downpicking it is too hard, try up, down, down. thats the way i play it, and it allows me to play it any speed i want. if you play it just right, you can’t hear the difference.
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ya, its 220. if downpicking it is too hard, try up, down, down. thats the way i play it, and it allows me to play it any speed i want. if you play it just right, you can’t hear the difference.
It’s like telling a race driver to sacrifice speed for comfort, by putting in heavy cushioned seats.
Sound IMO should be the most important factor to decide anything in music.
Alternate picking for this sounds to \»swingy\» (for the lack of a better word).
Downpicking gives it that aggressive/energetic pulse.
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It’s like telling a race driver to sacrifice speed for comfort, by putting in heavy cushioned seats.
Sound IMO should be the most important factor to decide anything in music.
Alternate picking for this sounds to \»swingy\» (for the lack of a better word).
Downpicking gives it that aggressive/energetic pulse.
maybe downpicking will sound better, but i don’t think i can physically do it. but i can effectively alternate pick it. this give me greater control over speed and accuracy. it doesn’t sound sloppy/swingy to me. it depends on how its muted and picked.
sound is very important in deciding how to play, but some people physically can’t downpick the entire riff. or maybe its just me. i feel like when i try to downpick it, it sounds \»clunky\» and too \»forced.\» i guess i just can’t downpick that fast. maybe if i practice i will be able to play it. but there is a very minute difference b/t downpicking something like that and alt picking it; alt picking allows me to control the speed so i can concentrate on the other aspects of my technique, like muting, attack/articulation, and fingering.
i think i will stick with alt picking the riff, but i will try to practice down picking it as well. but i think alt picking will win in the end.
\n \n\n \n \»If A is a success in life, then A equals x + y + z. Work = x; y = play; and z = keeping your mouth shut.\»
—Einstein
\»Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the the universe.\»
—Einstein \n \n \n