According to Kirk Hammett, Metallica music isn’t hard to play.
During a recent appearance on The Metallica Report podcast, the guitarist reflected on how he feels about playing Metallica songs:
“I gotta tell you. I know that people are going to kill me but Metallica music isn’t that difficult for me to play! It’s difficult for me to play bebop – now that’s difficult sh*t to play, okay? There are jazz progressions out there where there’s a chord change every beat, that’s difficult bro!”
Hammett finds bebop jazz challenging due to complex soloing techniques and intricate music theory:
“That’s mind-bending, learning how to solo over that. That’s where my head is at – or looking at great classic solos from great soloists and trying to get deep into the theory side of things and looking at it musically and seeing what their approach was. Metallica music, I’ve been playing it for the last 40 years. Of course, it’s going to be easy for me. It’s because I’m a guitar player.”
The Musician Likes Sophisticated Music
Kirk talked about how he writes music for the band and what inspires him in a 2021 Guitar World interview. He aims to create emotional moments through his music. He said he enjoys listening to technically advanced music like jazz, bossa nova, and classical pieces with complex chords:
“I’m in the habit of listening to music that is technically more sophisticated. A lot of jazz, a lot of bossa nova, a lot of classical music. I like to hear complicated chords. I like hearing sixes, ninths, elevenths. I crave that stuff. Also, I’m constantly listening for moments – and what I mean by moments is when something is going on musically that creates an emotion or a feeling, and everything’s happening and everyone’s hitting it and succeeding at it and getting that emotion across. And then I’ll look to create those types of moments in the music that I write for Metallica.”
Hammett previously credited Lars Ulrich for introducing him to a new approach related to jazz and blues for guitar solos on Metallica’s album ‘Hardwired…to Self-Destruct.’ Ulrich’s concept involves playing through measures rather than sticking strictly to the beat. This allows for more fluid and expressive phrasing.