How Kirk ACTUALLY Plays "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" by Metallica | The Lick Doctor w/Uncle Ben Eller

Downloadable practice tracks, bonus guitar lessons, and MORE here: / benellerguitars
This week, all my Patreon supporters, even at the $1 level, get access to the sick backing track I made for 2 weeks ago’s video! It’s over 6 minutes long with mixing and mastering by Eric Hill (Erockomania on Instagram), you’re gonna love it!
Grab last week's practice tracks at a variety of tempos, plus the midi tracks so you can build your OWN workout, PLUS the downloadable TABs here! / 50395556
How about a treasure trove of drone tracks that i made!? 12 root notes, 12 major chords, and 12 minor chords, for a total of 36 super long drone tracks! Its everything you need to learn all your scales in every key! Here's the direct link you need: / 49828461
Wanna learn ALL the notes and master the board? Here's the lesson you need: / 45181774
The BEST Half Hour of Alternate Picking Practice EVER: / 33563344
The secrets of note targeting revealed: / 38535524
My followup to my Ditch the CAGED System video: / 40492155
Get sweet deals on all the nice things i use here as part of @Sweetwater Guitar Month!!! Sick deals on all kinds of good stuff: imp.i114863.ne...
Hey kids! Its Uncle Ben Eller, AKA The Lick Doctor, and on today's episode, i'm helping my man John nail a note-for-note accurate performance of Kirk Hammett's legendary Sanitarium solo by Metallica (from Master of Puppets)! As usual, the online TABs are GARBAGE and not even remotely accurate, so i'm gonna show you exactly how Kirk himself does it! My TABs are available over on my Patreon page, so be sure to snag those!
Playing my Suhr Modern Terra straight into my Friedman BE100, which i am IN LOVE WITH! Such a killer setup!
Wanna be featured on a future episode of the Lick Doctor? Sign up to my Patreon page and drop me a message!

[@chrissmith5512]

My favourite uncle. The only one that’s never touched me 👍🏼

[@danmorrison8746]

That joke is in poor taste and I'm glad you made it :D :D

[@thenameless3271]

He's touched our hearts

[@Billywagner22]

OMFG haha

[@PelleKuipers]

He did touch me. He touched my insecurities, and my lack of discipline, and much more.

[@scribeofsolace]

Lmao….what’s your family history looking like bro

[@jidai666]

Ok, so we need a running list of the bizarre names that Uncle Ben uses for The Malmsteem. Yolo Mousemeat is simply amazing.

[@Jeffmetal42]

I was always fond of Ying Yang Milkshake

[@sorenportencio1149]

@@Jeffmetal42 yeah Ying Yang Milkshake is definitely my favorite

[@jasonjasniewski5925]

How are you liking the earth tone Suhr? I was thinking of getting the blue or the green I saw on Reverb. Btw it’s nice to see that someone else can’t stand the Metallica tabs with all the mistakes. I learned most by ear and was incredibly close on this one. I admit I did not hear the harmony near the beginning the same way. I thought I heard a straight barre across the 1st and 2nd string. Note that I heard how you do it I see I was wrong. Great lesson!

[@AndersonWave17]

Yawangy is my favorite. That’s per Devin Townsend

[@sole__doubt]

I really like the Ingsteen Malmateen version.

[@jacoblord735]

U are the most intelligent, capable and funny guitar coach. Actually ur the best teacher I've ever had. Period.

[@BenEller]

❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@CyberScorps]

Thanks Ben for helping me out there 🙂 It really helped immensely and my playing is already improving. Ben is the guitar teacher I wish I had when I first started playing many moons ago 🤘🏻

[@BenEller]

You the man! Thanks for contributing!

[@chrissmith5512]

Nice one JC! 🤘🏼🤘🏼

[@garylayton5719]

Such a nostalgic solo for me. I remember learning this when I was like 15. Glad to see you playing a Friedman now, Ben. Your tone is on point. That harmonic richness is music to my ears. Keep up the great work.

[@BenEller]

Dude, I seriously cannot believe this amp. It’s perfect.

[@seangarland]

One of the absolute best guitar KZbinrs! A happy Patreon here!

[@benearhart1224]

Love the stuff about picking. I agree that cases like this are troublesome. I run into this all the time with stuff where the picking pattern that feels most natural overall involves a down-pick immediately followed by a down-pick on the next higher string (e.g. "economy"). In those cases, the tempo determines whether or not you have to decelerate your pick on the way down to the second note. Thus, there is always pressure at that point to slip the tempo because your body would prefer to keep your right hand going at the same speed.

[@cembellsteve]

Still enjoying your videos 5 years after . Thanks a million for your hard work

[@jamiem7114]

You have the best finger exercises. Much appreciated!

[@keithbriscoe99]

If only the Interwebs and my Uncle Ben were alive in 1988/89 - I would be so much better on guitar. But, I'll take it now - thank you again!!

[@damage_plan1858]

Excellent video, especially the part about using your thumb joint during picking. You teach without being condescending to improper technique, which I have found to be rare with ALOT of guitar players/teachers. Thank you.

[@alexlynn7219]

Utter legend! Such useful help for all parts of the video.

[@BenEller]

Glad to help!

[@shane2613]

Yolo Mousemeat strikes again! Great job, John. Love these videos, Uncle Ben!

[@CyberScorps]

Cheers dude 🙂👍🏻

[@stewartking7376]

Great stuff as usual Doctor Uncle Ben! Sanitarium is one of ‘tallica’s finest!

[@GaijinMo]

Thanks so much Ben. About a year ago, I was watching as many videos of Kirk as I could find at 0.25 speed to figure out where the heck his hands were on those dyad parts. Will be revisiting this video often.

[@tjontario]

Your explanation of the 'key turning motion' and demonstration of proper hand movement just levelled my picking game up +5

[@Krullmatic]

My favorite Uncle is a Doctor now!? I knew that cheat sheet would come in handy for ya! Bad ass lesson as well, Dr. Uncle!

[@allboutthemojo]

Excellent. Will give this link doctor coaching a shot. I expected some " ha ha look at him play emojis " but Doctor Uncle handled it with utmost professionalism. What can I say, I'm bruised from the asking dumb questions in class humiliation from my teacher's. 🤣

[@ForestZachman]

I've been playing this (wrong) from the old Hal Leonard tab forever. Thanks for learnin' me gud!

[@sullenbode283]

Dawg, thank you so much for this. I just spent hours practicing and finally nailed it 🤘

[@rickfeith6372]

That Suhr looks so dope with the black board and stainless frets. Absolutely screams play me now.

[@jessestumpf190]

Thanks Uncle Ben, always showing me how to finger correctly. Now to try this on guitar

[@pfkmsandiego]

i am a music teacher. guitar is one of the instruments i have taught for almost 20 years. there are many amazing musicians on youtube. some attempt to teach people here and they’re not very good at all. you, my friend- u shred and teach awesomely. great job ! and, thank you.

[@Dan_Ranger]

Some great tips even for an old dog like me. Never stop learning or taking advice! Very rarely use tab as it didn’t exist when I started. Or wasn’t available. No net! Still use ear and now the live footage to get in the ballpark. Get a good ear as it makes learning easier and a lot quicker. Tab has the notes but not the feelz 🤘

[@jasonjasniewski5925]

Same here. I started playing by ear almost 40 years ago just like most people do. I remember my friend getting the Master of Puppets tab book after we had already learned most of the songs and determined it was so full of mistakes it was better used to kill flies that bothered us as we played in his garage.

[@Dan_Ranger]

@@jasonjasniewski5925 😂 Exactly that!

[@TwelveSticks]

Great stuff. I'm a member of a Solo Challenge group, where we learn a solo per week and I try really hard to put together my own tab, based on listening carefully and watching the original guitarist on video when possible. In six months, I don't think I have found a 100% correct tab for any of them online.

[@B3Band]

The easier the song, the more idiots try to tab it. I find the most complicated songs are usually the most accurately tabbed.

[@TwelveSticks]

Yeah, I hear you. But even the 'Official' tabs on Ultimate-guitar almost always have some little thing wrong with them. And solos with fast runs in them - most folks just seem to pick the starting and finishing notes and make a guess at what goes in between.

[@floppa_9530]

@@TwelveSticks Looks like the notes in between are fucking with everyone. Not just kirk

[@richardsanchez9190]

@@floppa_9530 hahahaha niceeee

[@leerobbo92]

Actually started learning this one recently, amazing timing!

[@BigTyronie]

Whats really crazy is we had to use those tabs back in the 90s and early 00s. Tabs were so freakin awful that in the early 00s we had this collective a canadian guy hosted called tooltabs. Probably the only reason good tool tabs exist. Where ever Nolan V is, you a G!! 🙏🏻

[@OlviMasta77]

That and guitaretabs and shortly after that, ultimate guitar

[@fredriksvanberg8141]

HAHA, that King Crimson comment made me shoot tea out of my nose! ❤️

[@danieljamesoconnor6800]

This is hilarious! Thanx for sharing unc. ✌🏻 Nice geethaar btw. 🤪

[@EnigmaticAnamoly]

That knuckle on your thumb advice is very underrated advice/technique to watch out for.

[@daivanci]

I knew there was something wrong with all of those tabs and KZbin tutorials with the diads section. Thank you for making me feel sane!

[@dereksendrak]

Great video my man! As always

[@genericusername5834]

love your guitar! one of my favorite colors! It Suhr does look nice hehe

[@patbaileyguitars]

Cool video, bro! Really lets the masses see more of your one-on-one instructor side. :) The thumb caveat was a great call-out too. I agree with the alternate picking fluidity, but here's maybe a 3rd way to approach? All small downstrokes through the arpeggio (tempo slow enough), i.e. EVH, Dave Mustaine, or even Hammett's partner Hetfield? Just a thought. P.S> YOLO! hahahaha

[@TheStrykerProject]

Great advice on the alternate pick approach instead of trying to sweep at mid to slow tempos. I had to adopt a hybrid alternate-picking/sweep technique for BoC's "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" on both the main riff and the 'interlude' section (right before and during the main solo). Otherwise, my timing would get off, and I was too sloppy with straight sweeps.

[@KrispyCoins]

Really nice video, I enjoyed it!

[@chriswalton3383]

Damn Ben, that really is a nice guitar. The inlays look really nice with that flawless looking fret board. Very nice. I bet your happy with it.

[@DavidSeeley-gd9wc]

Good lesson! I aways enjoying lessons

[@jiantjingerjohn]

I went to bed last night thinking about what songs in E I wanted to learn, I was considering Welcome Home (Sanitarium), but wasn't so sure, but you may have just swayed me :D

[@jessehuerta2028]

Tremendous video/lesson. This is the man I’d love to learn from on my journey to becoming a better player

[@pinktacoluvr]

Fantastic breakdown with Yolo Mousemeat as the icing to that cake. 👍🏼

[@glennpillsbury3262]

Like others have pointed out, I also learned this solo from the Cherry Lane book, so we never knew about the diads after the first climb. On the question of whether to play that climb in 7th or 12th position, the performance of the song in Nuremberg, Germany in 1992 that I’m watching right now and that’s part of the recent deluxe edition of TBA confirms the 12th position and also has a good shot of the diads. Thanks Uncle Ben!

[@vvictorcouto]

Great video, especially the explanation about the thumb motion. It was really helpful It's a very unsual movement, but if you have interest in seeing somone using this technique precisely, I think you might like to see a guitarrist Edu Ardanuy, from a band called Dr Sin. He uses this style of picking in high speeds with great accuracy.

[@yojimbo301]

He got me with the "Which King Crimson song is this?". 🤣

[@mr.phil.a]

You have a really nice approach dude.

[@BenEller]

Thanks man

[@thehoppo]

First you were my Uncle, then my Step Dad, now my Doctor, you make me more better Dr Uncle Dad

[@djcaymann]

Uncle, thank you for this blessing 👏👌

[@Evski-if4gn]

We love you Dr. Uncle Ben!!!!!!

[@DJ33]

Good stuff Doctor Uncle Ben

[@gageclark2390]

Man I’m really damn early take care uncle Ben awesome video as always.

[@Thirteen31Music]

Pretty pleased i was playing it 99% right although you highlighted a few minor details Id never noticed which really dot the I’s and cross the T’s. 👍

[@nlong4028]

I cant learn a thing from your videos when Im laughing so hard you funny sucker! lol

[@Jopeymessmusic]

Ever since I started watching Ben, I'm convinced every isolated guitar track recorded is floating around on the tubes somewhere! Ha ha ha. Also John Petrucci exercises?! "Oh my arm just cracked and yours might also" 😅👀

[@aries_9130]

Great lesson!

[@cassiusbattaglia5670]

Honestly I hate making KZbin comments but this criticism was honestly very thoughtful and intuitive.

[@LowdenFTW]

When I was younger I would buy the Hal Leanord tab books for Metallica and pantera and even I as a young/new guitar player could instantly tell were wrong. Made me crazy!

[@ColtsHouse]

Good God damn this dude is talented. Keep going sir , cheers

[@KevinNolin]

Thanks Uncle Doctor Ben

[@Trikisixx]

I too like nice things. Your lick Dr. intro is nice.

[@graysonhester2955]

The Petrucci exercise sounds like a dissonant, jazzier version of the opening lick to “Mr. Sandman.”

[@jacksguitarplanet]

+1 on the cross pick instead of a sweep. It helped me play that over the mountain lick much better. I was thinking exactly that when you said it, you mind reader you.

[@scottmthw]

I have the Master Of Puppets tab book published by Cherry Lane that I purchased in the early 90's. It has plenty of errors but it was great for me bc we didn't have the internet to access back in those days

[@yubscrub]

Hey uncle Ben so speaking of terrible tabs, I've been looking everywhere for Oblivion tabs and I can't find any good ones. Was wondering if you could make a how to actually play oblivion video (since your the guy to go to for mastodon riffs) mainly the bridge. Figured out the first half on my own just can't figure out the second half. Consider???

[@markgarcia72]

I’ve seen Kirk do it the other way as well with the “Eric Johnson string skipping” approach. It was more common in the AJFA days.

[@sole__doubt]

Pretty cool how Marty has his own amp company. :)

[@A.J.99]

I use the TC Electronic Quintessence harmoniser pedal to play all the harmonised parts of this solo. It also lets me play harmonised bent notes wich sound even more cool.

[@patandmacmusic]

Love that pedal!

[@mattpalmer8058]

Ben makes me wish I knew how to play guitar. Not enough to learn guitar or practice guitar or put any personal effort into it whatsoever, but enough that it would be cool to know.

[@AndreiGrozea]

10:45 basically summarized in 30seconds or so what I couldn't understand is wrong with my picking for 7 years of playing guitar or whatever. Holy crap

[@kennethnegy9467]

Same here! And the thumb motion is so small that it can be nearly undetectable, but it really does make picking unreliable at fast speeds because you never know exactly where and how the pick will hit the strings. So hard to get rid of that muscle memory, though :'(

[@clerian]

For the thumb movement on picking, does that also apply to "circle picking" where you're arpeggiating across 3 notes: up picking and then pulling off on G string, then sweep picking the D and G strings, for instance. I find that bending my thumb allows the pick to cross over more easily during the up pick in that situation.

[@TheMetalMag]

ahah the intro. I learnt the first tabs sold as books late eighties and you can notice they are plenty of mistake there from metallica to satriani. As I mostly learnt from ear I can tell they are lots of wrong tabs since day one! so not surprised the new ones can't be better..

[@BriBeast8566]

I was blessed with the ability to learn my favorite metallica songs after figuring out Randy Rhoads and Van Halen licks by ear in the PYT days (Pre KZbin).

[@tonyfondacaro1980]

There’s no substitute for developing your ears and being able to see the lick based on what you hear.

[@bobbywest8460]

keep me learning as usual Uncle Ben. appreciate you.

[@StuPedassol]

My goddamn counselor told me I could not get a PhD in Lick, let alone my Masters. Thanks, Uncy Bang!

[@muaythai4lifelife]

Ho uncle Ben! For geeks and Metallica fans I suggest to get the GW issue where there's Kirk on the mop kind of background. It's full of little parts showed, especially part tabbed wrong from .. forever..

[@MalakaiDerg]

Thank you so much for this. I always knew the tabs fucking sucked but my ear and knowledge was never good enough to actually catch what was going on so this actually brings me relief to see the proper way. Love those solos anyway. Shout out to the awful 15/14 fret bend that I knew wasn't right lmao

[@fraydiethemachine7541]

BADASS INTRO

[@garylisbon8933]

LMAO...the add before this "yet another awesome video" by you Unc was hilarious!!! The hottest girl at the party asked him to jam and he bombed ROTFL!!! Maybe if he followed your channel he would be confronted with a pregnancy test next month..OMG some of these adds are too much

[@TylerUSA]

Thank you for your excellent advice and knowledge, Dr. Uncle Ben! I don't think my insurance covers this though...

[@hangman960]

Great video

[@BenEller]

Thanks buddy

[@RancidAmputation123]

Dr., Uncle, Liker of Nice things and spreader of truth about the DOD Grunge Pedal. Dr. uncle Ben really does it all

[@nahnotsomuch2292]

Just a public service announcement. Maybe don't lick your doctor. However, go ahead and lick your dentist. They're weird like that and will likely enjoy it.

[@wmot206]

Sick olive drab guitar!

[@BenEller]

Thanks man, Suhr makes the BEST guitars!

[@johnbraucher1499]

KZbin should have an option where musicians watching guitar and drum videos can have the option to post tabs to people or examples of tablature or a transcript option. That way we can all correct eachother and teach eachother music and comment too at the same time and same place.

[@danieljester7752]

shame you didnt do this vid a few weeks ago....just bought the red and black Jackson Rhoads RRX24 from sweetwater

[@ScarredPredator]

Could you do a video on how to do the chorus riff, Uncle Ben? The isolated guitar tracks differ from Kirk’s tutorial video...

[@zachhickey5887]

Man.. I'd love to see you run through the solo on the songs, Ghosts - Big Wreck. Great tune! Ian Thornley is a criminally underrated guitarist..

[@vomito72]

that guy plays a LTD , I do like ltd so you must be wrong 🤪 thanks Uncle Ben , actually your videos are always the most useful and funny in the KZbin world about techniques I do like your videos a lot!.

[@mylesadams1662]

That suhr modern terra series 🤤

[@schjonicus]

Doctor Uncle Ben! 😂🤘

[@Chord_The_Seeker]

“The pinky police”. Lol!

[@mmaiden666]

I don't know why, but that thumb wiggle made me laugh.

[@John-do9ei]

I think you are missing the biomechanics of the thumb thing. I would tell the guy that's it's about his personal wiring and what matters is getting it smooth and precise and controlled. It reminds me of Micheal Angelo Batio, but he just needs to practice to refine it. The way we talked about it (many years ago), it was a movement of the right index finger, like plucking finger style, except with a pick, and the thumb is relaxed keeping the pick in place. The arc is very small. When you exaggerate it like that, yeah, you have a crazy arc, but the movement in practice is a very small and efficient straight line. The advantage is you don't move your palm position and it's very efficient because it's basically one muscle. I tried it for a while, but I didn't like the pick attack, and that finger movement is triggered way up the forearm, so if find it less efficient. I'm personally more traditional in technique, but after doing this for a long time, it's more like a twitch in the palm, versus the wrist thing that people teach. The wrist and arm movement is really about reach and also clocking the radius to deal with the pick in the ditch problem. What matters is that Randy advice that when you're playing, you're real gentle like you're holding a baby bird. Otherwise, it doesn't matter, except that you train those slow twitch muscles to be able to do it fast and in control so you can keep it going through a gig without resorting to big gross motor movements from fast twitch muscle.

[@KaineSpawnX]

You showed something at 5:55 in your vid that I've been missing: that D note at the 15th fret in the arpeggio before the walk-down scale. My ear and finger had been skipping over it and just doing the A octave thanks to whatever tabs I saw way back. It almost sounds like an open D string pitch on the album, but I figured that's actually just distortion overtone shenanigans from how Kirk let the notes bleed together, and you're showing it totally right. Thanks for helping nail those details!

[@rustyfryman8889]

Gold!

[@chrisking6695]

Chris Brooks and Yngwie actually use a mixture of foreman supination and wrist deviation and only use as much motion as they need to move past the string. If you do that quickly it'll look like you're just using your thumb.

[@TheIdiotNamedJoe]

Lost it at “Yolo Mousemeat” lol

[@benearhart1224]

About the picking exercise, I think the hardest case is going to a lower fret on the next higher string. For guys sporting a 1.25mm to 1.5mm action, this may not be a factor. However, if you are like me and are playing on the $300 Fender Squire special with it's 3mm to 4mm action, that stuff eats your lunch. For example, 9th fret on A string followed by 8th fret on D string. You have to lift your middle finger up very quickly. This also makes it very easy to miss the string with the pick if you are alternating between the notes since it moves the strings vertically so much. It took me three weeks and babying through tons of tendinitis to get to where I could do that with any speed. I watched your guitar setup video yesterday and I think as soon as I have the cash I need to ditch this thing. I think it has served it's purpose as a $300 guitar: yes, I'm going to keep playing so now I know I need to buy a better guitar.

[@aisakthirteen9794]

If your action is high on a squier lower the saddles, or if it’s a nut issue, give your guitar a vasectomy and cut the nut. I have worked on multiple Squiers and have at the end have the same action as any other guitar. Even if you take it to a guitar tech to do it, shouldn’t be more than $70.

[@benearhart1224]

@@aisakthirteen9794 Thanks! I was looking at the action at the nut just now and it's probably about 2mm. However, at the 21st fret, the action is about 4mm. This probably is related to the fact that the guitar goes sharp as you go up the neck. Ben made a big deal about cutting the nut, however I imagine you just need to make sure to keep it level.

[@jacksguitarplanet]

I agree with Aisak. You should be able to get low action on a Squire. I have a strat that I got for $5 in a yard sale and I got the action nice and low. The pickups are cheap, but the guitar plays great.

[@benearhart1224]

@@jacksguitarplanet Thanks! You guys have given me some courage to mess with it. That's a good thing because, as my speed improves, I'm wrecking my hand with this action and I don't really have the money for a new guitar ATM!

[@benearhart1224]

@@aisakthirteen9794 What do you think about the whammy bar? The other major reason I had come to the conclusion my Squire needs to be trashed is that the wound strings, particularly the E and A, go sharp after using it. I put some graphite in those channels in the nut but it didn't really help. Nevertheless, I'm still pretty sure that the problem has to do with the wound strings binding at the nut.

[@wm-nu1yf]

Vai does something very similar to the Petrucci thing in the Attitude Song solo, just across 3 strings instead of 4.

[@chopshop777]

Do you give advice on originals too on lick doctor ? thanks Ben cheers

[@dystervarg5257]

Excelent video. Can you do the groove riff previous the chorus riff in Welcome Home (Sanitarium) that the tab book didn't get? It's says is a palm muting melody line instead of power chord attack over a E pedal. I hope I explained myself, English is not my first language. Thank you so much for your help telling us the right way and how to approach it.