I never been and never will be a great musician but I really love every note I’m playing and that’s what counts!
Just over 2 years into my Justin Guitar journey (grade 5 at the moment) with practice that differs from half an hour to a few hours a week.
I am starting to get the hang of one of the songs that made me want to learn to play the guitar: Nothing Else Matters.
This is a hard song in relation to where I currently am, one of 3 hard songs that I am currently working on next to the songs that fit my skill set better.
Here’s the first attempt that I found “ok” enough to share with others. Still a lot of progression to make but the base is definitely there and I must say I’m quite proud of this no matter what others think of it.
I left out the solo for now, still working on that and am not at a level to share it just yet.
Recorded with my phone, playing unplugged on my Yamaha APX-600M, so sorry for the lesser sound quality in advance!
I tried recording with me on screen but the audio quality was even worse in that case, so I recorded with the phone laying flat with the mic pointing towards my guitar.
Will look into better recording methods for future videos.
Great job Floris ! It surely is not an easy song and you did really well You can be proud of you and it’s awesome that you have succeeded in achieving your goal of learning that song that you love
I would be as well, I think it sounded very nice, my wife even perked up. She rarely does it when I am playing. She has had a crush on James Hetfield since Kill em All.
Seriously, Well done. It sounded great, and looking forward to more contributions from you.
Very good, it’s one of the Metallica songs that’s really good for learning finger style, not too difficult not too easy. It’s one that I haven’t tried as yet, my first venture into non classical finger style was Joe Satriani Tears in the rain, it’s a grade 8 piece.
Floris,
Kudos to you for this effort… you are working on something that’s difficult and you have managed to make it sound very good! Lots to praise here, notes are ringing out nice & clear, dynamics are very much in evidence, and the song is immediately recognizable!
My only critique is to work on timing… I sense a bit of hesitation at a couple of points. That being said, the tiny pauses don’t feel like they interrupt the flow… really good job overall!!!
I’m hoping to hear you solo over this at some point in the future!!!
Well, I’m here to tell you, I’m no Metallica fan, at all…but, you made me want to listen to it. That was really good. You put in a lot of work and it shows. I’ll be glad when I can play like that one day. Keep it up and don’t look back.
That was lovely Floris, very well played … … the recording quality sounded absolutely fine.
I am sure you learned a lot by challenging yourself with this score. You moved up and down the fretboard very smoothly; aperggiation picking, H/O & P/O, and transitions to and from strumming was smooth too.
Fwiw, in my 4yrs playing, I like to pick songs I want to learn … and as ever I almost always pick ones above my play grade. However, although they take much longer to learn, it’s the longer journeys to somewhere new that are often more enjoyable (air-travel very often the exception) … .
As for AV recording, it’s really a bit of ‘trial and error’ and a ‘phone’ is fine. Remember that however “Heath Robinson” your camera recording set-up looks to you, all the audience sees is your performance.
Well that was fantastic Floris! There’s a lot of content in that song, and you pulled it off really well. I would struggle very hard to find errors. I know how difficult it is recording long pieces - one mistake and you have to start the whole thing again. That’s one more challenge that you overcame.
I know timing is something to work on. And a continuous process in my case. If “musicality” isn’t a gift you where born with it’s a steep learning curve to master it as best as you can. Even harder than learning techniques in my opinion.
Most of the “pauzes” are due to misplaced fingers and small mistakes . But I really wanted to record a full play through of the song so I deliberately left them in. Nothing to learn from masking your mistakes
That was our daughter walking in and saying hi. At the end you can also hear her telling our dog to sit
You can be proud of you and it’s awesome that you have succeeded in achieving your goal of learning that song that you love 
… the recording quality sounded absolutely fine.
.
. But I really wanted to record a full play through of the song so I deliberately left them in. Nothing to learn from masking your mistakes 
That was our daughter walking in and saying hi. At the end you can also hear her telling our dog to sit