nothing else matters


BOOM
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BOOM
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01/03/2004 7:26 pm
Alright I just don't get this: everywhere I hear that this song is so easy to play, but I just can't seem to understand how it is played.

For stairway to heaven for example I found a tab with a chord help, so after practising those chords a bit the song became fairly easy because most of the time you just have to form a chord, play some notes in it, form the next chord , play again some notes in it etc. .... It had an easy-to-understand structure to me

For nothing else matters though I just couldn't find any chord help, so I looked it up in the Black Album songbook, but this only made it worse. Like for example during the intro there are chord names like Cadd2 that I can't even find on the internet. Also, there are some easy chords like Em which is used a lot during the first part, but then suddenly on the two highest strings there are some other notes:
7 8 7 8 5 7 5 3 2 (something like this, it's not correct I know but it's just for explanation)
These notes have nothing to do with that Em chord. For a lot of other parts there are also other notes that are not part of the chord that the piece is played in, so this makes it very hard for me to understand if I have to make a chord shape or not with my fretting hand and which fingers I have to use . I can't seem to get a clear structure of the song

I hope you understand my problems after this confusing explanation
I can't ask you to explain this whole song or even the whole intro, so I just want to know this: since everybody thinks this song is so easy, does it actually matter that you know which chords are used, and also which fingers of your fretting hand you use to play (for example in the piece I noted here, and other pieces that often use a lot of pull-offs and hammer-ons and slides etc. in the song)? Or in other words: when you learned this song, did you understand how it was build, and how it was played, so you could use almost the same fingering as for example James Hetfield uses? Or did you just learned to play it in way that was easy for you, even though you knew that this was perhaps not the "proper" way of playing or that most people would play it different?


# 1
Leedogg
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Leedogg
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01/04/2004 12:26 pm
I learnt that song at the beginning of last summer. I had some similar questions about it on a thread from back then. You can find it here. By the way, are you using a pick for the intro?
Blues is easy to play, but hard to feel.
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# 2
BOOM
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BOOM
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01/04/2004 2:44 pm
thnx I had some problems with that piece too :)

I haven't really tried to play the song yet, but I was going to use a pick yes. While playing stairway to heaven I figured out that it was much easier for me to use a pick and use my middle-, ringfinger and pinky if necessary for the other strings. Then I learned that this was a proper technique known as "hybrid picking" :)

[Edited by BOOM on 01-04-2004 at 08:48 AM]
# 3
Tele Master
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Tele Master
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01/04/2004 3:30 pm
If you can play Stairway, then it shouldn't be a problem to learn Nothing Else Matters. With the extra notes, you just add them in. If you know the song, by listening to it, then when you're playing it you should recognize where the fills are.
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# 4
iiholly
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iiholly
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01/04/2004 4:08 pm
Originally posted by Leedogg
I learnt that song at the beginning of last summer. I had some similar questions about it on a thread from back then. You can find it here. By the way, are you using a pick for the intro?


You "learnt" it, heh?

Stairway isn't that hard to learn, and neither is Nothing Else Matters. If you can't manage to learn the song move onto something else, and come back to it later. I do that quite often, and it seems to work for me.

# 5
metal_carnage
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metal_carnage
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01/05/2004 3:17 pm
Nothing Else matters is not intended as a chord song.
You can play it in chords though but it gets real boring.

I have played this song on my performance, using only chords. You play some variations on chords. You grab a basic D, then let go of some finger when you stroke it, grab another note (still in D) and stroke it again.
This sounds all ****ed up I know but it does is the correct way to play it.

As for me: When I started to play the guitar, I didnt knew any chords, I just knew how they sounded but I couldnt name them.
N.E.M was accualy my first song to (try to) play, well you guys know when you play guitar for 3 months, you cant call playing guitar real 'playing' and 'learning' a song is what you do when you can play it right away.
But the chords maked all sence to me. You you grab a basic chords, then make variations on it. Some of them have names, Im not into naming chords, just know how to make them sound.
And you dont stroke these chords, you fingerpick them (You can stroke them but as I said before it gets boring)

Im told by a lot of people wow you play that song the hard way! I was like: is there a hard or easy way then? :)

So your question: It does matter that you know which chords are used, because you make variations based on the chord (and they clearly sound like the chords to me)

as for the second: Your fingersettings are all up to you.
Just play the way you feel comfortable, and it sounds the best. I have passed the comfortable-fase, im intending to play the way it sounds best. With a little practise that 'uncomfortable' way of playing becomes comfortable.

Of course theres a fingersetup for your frettinghand but that doesnt mean thats the only way to play ;)


Dont think, just play :)
# 6
BOOM
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BOOM
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01/05/2004 6:33 pm
thnx for the replies, in the meantime I've already gained a much clearer view of the song btw :)
# 7
BOOM
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BOOM
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01/12/2004 8:09 pm
I have another question about this song: what fingering do you have to use for this part:
E-------------3-----0-----|-2-----3-----3-----------|
B---------0-----------0---|---------3-------3-------|
G-----0-----------0-----0-|-----------0---------0---|
D-------------------------|-0--0--------------------|
A-------------------------|-------------3-----------|
E-0-----------------------|-------------------------|

E---------3---2-------2---|
B---------3---0---------0-|
G-----0-------2-----------|
D-------------------------|
A-------------2-----2-----|
E-3-----------------------|


In the two previous similar parts you have to make a D chord, (Dsus4) and Cadd2, at least as written in the songbook. The few notes just before the B7 are from a G chord, but the notes befor those aren't from a G chord nor a Cadd2, can anyone explain what fingering you have to use then.
# 8
rreite2233
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rreite2233
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02/28/2004 12:58 am
I had a lot of trouble back when I learned to play the song a few years ago ... and just about the same question you do. I could never find a suitable chord to use that I felt comfortable with so I learned it with out them at that part. I guess you could say I kind of use different variations of D ... that's my easiest way to explain that. Still play it that way to this day ... never got around to learning the right way which is Em, C and Dadd9 for the most of the part ;-)

check this out

http://www.guitartutoronline.com/songs/matters/verse/verse.htm


[Edited by rreite2233 on 02-27-2004 at 08:04 PM]
Randy
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# 9
kingdavid
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kingdavid
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02/28/2004 12:28 pm
If I'm not mistaken,I think the song is in D minor.Just try playing D minor,then F then C.If I had my guitar with me,I'd have tried it out and see if I'm saying the correct thing,but I can't.
And here I'm just talking about the chords,not the melody itself.It sounds OK when you play along with the song,but I can't play a melody myself.I suck like that.
# 10

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