Metallica - Enter Sandman Pt.1 - Intro & Main Riff - Guitar Lesson

About Enter Sandman Pt.1 - Intro & Main Riff

Few riffs in heavy music are as immediately recognizable as the one that opens "Enter Sandman," and learning it properly is a worthwhile goal for any developing rock guitarist. Metallica wrote this in Eb Standard tuning, so before you play a single note, drop every string down a half step. The main riff is built around a low E-string groove using palm muting and power chords, and the real challenge is getting that tight, chunky palm-mute feel consistent throughout, especially as the picking hand speeds up into the galloping sections. At 123 BPM the riff sits at a pace that is comfortable once you have the technique locked in, but beginners will want to start slower. Use the Practice Toolbar to loop the riff at a reduced speed until your pick attack and muting pressure feel even on every note. The transition from the clean intro picking pattern into the full distorted riff also trips people up, so isolate that moment with the A/B loop and slow it down before stitching the whole section together. Thrash Metal riffing like this rewards precision over aggression, so keep your palm mute controlled.

• The riff is played in Eb Standard tuning, meaning all six strings are tuned down a half step from standard, which affects fingering and open-string resonance.
• Consistent palm muting on the low E string is the core technique here, and uneven muting pressure is the most common issue for players learning this riff.
• The intro uses a clean, fingerpicked or picked arpeggio pattern before the full distorted riff kicks in, so practice both sections as separate challenges.