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Metallica - All Within My Hands - Guitar Lesson

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Key E minor
Metallica - All Within My Hands guitar lesson video
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St. Anger album cover
St. Anger
2003 8:46
Listen on Spotify
Metallica Heavy Metal 2003 E minor
Capo Advisor 0 E minor · Original key

About All Within My Hands

Closing out the St. Anger album, "All Within My Hands" is one of the most physically demanding tracks Metallica put to tape in that era. The whole song sits in Eb Standard tuning, dropping every string a half-step, which gives the low-end chug a slightly thicker, darker feel than straight E Standard would. At 104 BPM the tempo is mid-range, but the relentless down-picked riffing in E minor will punish your picking forearm fast if your technique is not clean and relaxed. That right-hand stamina is really the core challenge here: keeping each note tight and even across several minutes of grinding, palm-muted power chords without tension creeping into your wrist. Use the Practice Toolbar to loop the main riff passages at reduced speed, focusing on picking articulation before you push the tempo back up. The song also stretches to well over eight minutes, so building endurance across its full length is its own separate goal worth working toward.

  • The song is tuned to Eb Standard, dropping all six strings a half-step, which adds weight to the low-register palm-muted riffing throughout.
  • Relentless down-picking across extended, repetitive riff sections makes right-hand endurance the primary technical hurdle for guitarists learning this track.
  • At over eight minutes long, maintaining consistent picking attack and palm-mute tightness from start to finish is a real stamina challenge in the <a href="/genre/heavy-metal/">Heavy Metal</a> style.

How to Play All Within My Hands

Tuning: Eb Standard · Key: E minor · Tempo: 104 BPM

It is played in Eb standard, a half step down, so tune down before you start or every position and bend will sit a half step sharp against the recording.

Use the section loop to isolate a passage, drop the speed below 100%, and set the metronome to 104 BPM to build it up to tempo.

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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