Intro In this exclusive video lesson, Alex Skolnick shows you how to play a jazz arrangement of the Metallica classic, "Fade to Black," from the new Alex Skolnick Trio album, Veritas. Here, Alex shows you how to play the song's intro, which is similar to the original but played an octave higher, and also a series of harmonics he plays over the intro. Live, he uses a looping pedal to play both parts.
Melodic Reprise In Part 2 of his "Fade to Black" lesson, Alex covers the opening solo, the chord changes in the verse, and the transition between the intro and the verse. This transition quotes another Metallica song, "One," which is played in a similar position.
Vocal Melody In contrast to the song's intro, which Skolnick plays an octave higher than the original, the vocal melody is starts out being played an octave lower and makes extensive use of open strings. After once through, Alex again bring the melody up an octave for the remainder of the verse. Notice that he changes one note at the end of vocal melody to better suit a particular chord voicing.
Guitar Melody There is both a bass and drum solo in the middle of the track, and at the start of this video, we are shown the backing chords for both solos. Alex then demonstrates an improvised version of the song's second solo, which leads back into a reprise of the intro solo.
Vocal Reprise Here, Alex demonstrates the backing chords to the outro solo, and runs through another improvised version of the final solo before the outro.
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