Metallica
Nothing Else Matters chords
Nothing Else Matters by Metallica is an intermediate song in Em, played with no capo. The whole sheet is 6 chords (Em, D, C, G, B7, A) across 3 sections: Intro → Verse ×2 → Chorus. Every shape is an open chord, so nothing here needs barre strength. It sits at roughly 46 BPM.
By Chiye · Updated
Hardest change in the sheet: D → C, 3 times.
- Difficulty
- Intermediateno barre needed
- Key
- Emwith no capo
- Tempo
- 46BPM
- Tuning
- Standard (E A D G B E)low to high
- Chords
- 6all open shapes
- Sections
- 3each with its own progression
Chords in Nothing Else Matters
Frets read low E to high E, x means leave that string out.
Chord sheet
One chord per bar, four beats to the bar: the shape lands on beat one and the dots mark the beats after it, so you can see where the change falls without any lyrics. Where a section has no strumming pattern written, play one chord per bar. Tap a bar to hear it.
Lyrics are not reproduced for this song: they are still in copyright and this site has no licence to publish them. The chords, structure, strumming and sing-along timing are all here. Songs whose words are public domain →
Intro♩=46
Verse× 2 · ♩=46
Chorus♩=46
Printable one-page chord chart
How to play Nothing Else Matters
Nothing Else Matters is Metallica’s acoustic masterpiece and the gateway song for metal players moving to clean guitar. The intro arpeggio over Em, D and C is played fingerstyle and repeats all the way through the verses.
The verse adds G and B7 on the line “trust I seek, and I find in you” — that B7 is the emotional hinge of the song, so give it a moment to ring. The chorus is pure arena rock: C, A, D with big, patient downstrokes, no rushing.
Practise the intro pattern slowly — thumb on the low strings, fingers plucking the top three — and let each chord ring out before you move. Once the pattern is automatic, the whole song opens up, because the left hand barely changes between sections. Open strings everywhere; let them sing.
How to practise Nothing Else Matters
Four steps computed from this sheet: the order the shapes are easiest to learn in, the changes that really occur in the progressions above, where each chord turns up, and the tempo ladder up to the recorded speed.
Learn the shapes easiest first
Em (0-2-2-0-0-0, beginner) → D (x-x-0-2-3-2, beginner) → C (x-3-2-0-1-0, beginner) → G (3-2-0-0-0-3, beginner) → B7 (x-2-1-2-0-2, beginner) → A (x-0-2-2-2-0, beginner)
6 of the 6 shapes are open chords, so nothing here needs barre strength yet.
Drill the changes this sheet actually uses
D → C3×Em → D3×A → D2×C → A2×
These counts come from the progressions on this page, so they are the changes you will actually play, not a generic list of pairs to practise.
Know where each chord turns up
- EmIntro, Verse
- Devery section
- Cevery section
- GVerse
- B7Verse
- AChorus
Climb the tempo ladder
Start at 28 BPM and move up only when a full pass is clean: 28 → 35 → 41 → 46 BPM. The recorded feel is around 46 BPM, and the last step is the one that always feels like a jump. Stay at 41 for longer than feels necessary.
Every section here uses the same set of shapes, so there is no section to single out. Whatever you can play once, you can play all the way through.
Playing Nothing Else Matters with a capo
This sheet needs no capo. Each card shows what you would finger at that capo position so the song still sounds exactly as written. Useful when the shapes above are awkward, or when you want to sing it higher without learning new chords.
No capoas written
Em D C G B7 A
6 of 6 stay open
Fret 1
Ebm C# B F# Bb7 Ab
no open shapes left, all barre
Fret 2
Dm C Bb F A7 G
4 of 6 stay open
Fret 3
C#m B A E Ab7 F#
2 of 6 stay open
Fret 4
Cm Bb Ab Eb G7 F
1 of 6 stay open
Fret 5
Bm A G D F#7 E
4 of 6 stay open
Fret 6
Bbm Ab F# C# F7 Eb
no open shapes left, all barre
Fret 7
Am G F C E7 D
5 of 6 stay open
Working out a different key? The capo calculatordoes the same arithmetic for any chord set.
More songs built on the same chords
If Nothing Else Matters clicks, these use the closest set of shapes, so the chords you just learned keep working.
More intermediate songs to learn after this one: Hotel California, Hey Jude, The Weight, Blackbird.
These chords across the songbookHow often each chord in Nothing Else Matters turns up across all 80 songs on this site, and what it most often moves to next. The counts come from the sheet library itself, not from theory.
113bars of this chord across the songbook
30songs use this shape
Most often followed by C, 27×.
248bars of this chord across the songbook
44songs use this shape
Most often followed by G, 40×.
363bars of this chord across the songbook
54songs use this shape
Most often followed by G, 115×.
418bars of this chord across the songbook
59songs use this shape
Most often followed by C, 80×.
10bars of this chord across the songbook
5songs use this shape
Most often followed by E, 3×.
120bars of this chord across the songbook
20songs use this shape
Most often followed by D, 24×.