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Metallica - Nothing Else Matters - Guitar Cover

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Key E minor
Metallica - Nothing Else Matters guitar cover video
Kfir Ochaion
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Metallica (Remastered) album cover
Metallica (Remastered)
1991 6:29
Listen on Spotify
Metallica Heavy Metal 1991 E minor
Capo Advisor 0 E minor · Original key

About Nothing Else Matters

Few Metallica songs surprise beginners quite like "Nothing Else Matters," because the opening requires no chords at all. The famous intro is built entirely from open strings, picked one at a time with the fretting hand doing almost nothing, yet it catches out a huge number of players who rush the tempo or let notes bleed into each other untidily. Getting a clean, even tone there is the first real goal. From the verse onward the song moves through fingerpicked arpeggios and gentle chord shapes in E minor, so your right-hand fingerpicking control matters far more than any flashy technique. The lead sections and melodic fills demand smooth legato phrasing and a light vibrato. Use the Practice Toolbar to loop any arpeggio passage slowed down until each note speaks cleanly before you bring it back up to speed. Metallica wrote a piece that rewards patience and touch far more than it rewards speed or aggression, which makes it a genuinely useful study in dynamic control.

  • The intro is played on open strings with no fretting, making tone and picking evenness the immediate challenge rather than left-hand technique.
  • The verse sections rely on fingerpicked arpeggios in E minor, so developing clean right-hand finger independence is central to playing this song well.
  • Despite its gentle feel, the transition into the fuller chorus and lead sections requires a confident shift in pick attack and left-hand vibrato control.

Fun Facts

  • James Hetfield originally wrote the song as a private piece, never intending it for Metallica; he was hesitant to show it to the band because of its personal lyrics and clean guitar style.
  • The song marked a stylistic shift for Metallica, becoming one of their first major power ballads and helping the band reach a much broader mainstream audience.
  • A live orchestral version was later recorded with the San Francisco Symphony, highlighting the song’s classical structure and long-term crossover appeal.

How to Play Nothing Else Matters

Key: E minor · Tempo: 48 BPM · Difficulty: Medium

The intro and verse sections are built on a recurring open-E-minor fingerpicked arpeggio pattern, and getting the right-hand finger assignments consistent before worrying about speed is essential since the pattern loops for a long time. At 48 bpm the tempo is slow, but that actually exposes any unevenness in the picking, so use the loop feature on the intro and focus on clean string separation. The solo is the biggest jump in difficulty, moving into expressive bending and vibrato over a more emotional, sustained phrasing style that contrasts sharply with the rest of the song. A common pitfall is rushing the arpeggio pattern slightly as it repeats; keeping the pulse anchored to the bass note on each new chord change will hold it steady.

Loop each section and focus on clean, even timing rather than speed, with the metronome at 48 BPM.

Gibson Les Paul Standard
Guitar

Gibson Les Paul Standard

Kirk Hammett's vintage 1959 'Greeny' Les Paul Standard delivers warmer, more dynamic PAF-style tones that contrast his EMG-equipped ESP guitars, adding organic sustain to his lead work. This guitar's traditional construction gives his solos a thicker, less compressed character than his signature models.

Gibson Les Paul Custom
Guitar

Gibson Les Paul Custom

While not Hammett's primary choice, the Les Paul Custom shares the Les Paul's warm PAF pickup character and thick body resonance, offering heavier players an alternative to Strat-style designs for achieving Metallica's crushing rhythm tones.

Gibson Explorer
Guitar

Gibson Explorer

James Hetfield's early Gibson Explorer established his signature angular shape and thick body tone, delivering the aggressive midrange attack essential to Metallica's crushing rhythm style before his ESP signature models became his primary tool.

Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier
Amp

Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier

Kirk Hammett's Dual Rectifier heads provide the high-gain, midrange-forward aggression that lets his solos cut through Hetfield's scooped rhythm tone, creating definition and clarity in Metallica's dense wall of distortion.

EMG 81
Pickup

EMG 81

Hetfield's bridge EMG 81 delivers the hot, compressed output with tight low-end that defines Metallica's palm-muted riffs, the ceramic magnet and active preamp cutting through heavy arrangements with focused, aggressive attack.

EMG 60
Pickup

EMG 60

Both guitarists use the neck EMG 60 for warmer, more articulate rhythm tones and smoother lead voicings, balancing the 81's aggression with clearer note definition across Metallica's dense arrangements.

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