Fade to black - Metallica

Today, I decided to learn a different song to widen and improve my range of techniques. The song opens with an acoustic riff, which is all picked - the only thing thing I struggled with was the speed and getting used to the awkward finger position movement because sometimes I would accidentally touch and then mute another string and then the next string would not sound because it's muted. To practice this, I done it very slowly and focussed on bending my fingers enough so I don't end up accidentally muting other strings, then I sped up and I became much more comfortable with the finger positions.

The next part is a lead solo part whilst being accompanied by the acoustic riff which underscores the solo. This is an extremely challenging part because it is filled with awkward finger positions, difficult techniques and fast licks. See vlog for further analysis.

Jesus of suburbia - 'III. I don't care' singing and playing

This part of the song is quite hard to sing and play at the same time because the strumming pattern is quite fast and inconsistent, which sometimes throws me off my singing because they are in time to each other. Vocally, the only challenging part is the words because it is quite wordy, and I need to work on my articulation because sometimes when I'm singing I slur my words and this is made even worse by the fact that it is very wordy. I also need to work on my breath control, for one particular part in this sub-song is very quick vocally and wordy, also with fast and aggressive guitar strum at the end of ever two bars - I think to work on this, I just need to practice it, just vocals first slowly then focus on articulating properly and increasing the stamina of my voice in terms of breath control and oxygen intake. The guitar is fairly simple for this part so I won't need to practice it on it's own therefore I will just put them both together and start slowly, and gradually build up in tempo so I can get used to focussing on my articulation and musical stamina at the same time. The next part is a challenge too, the strumming pattern is very fast and inconsistent, and it doesn't match the beat of the vocal melody so it is hard to sing and play this part. So to practice this, I simply played it slowly to get used to and comfortable with the strumming pattern, and then I put the vocals over the top, layering it bit by bit. This way helped me to feel more confident with playing and singing simultaneously. I think me breath control was no problem here, possibly because it is not as wordy nor vocally quick so it did not pose a challenge to me.