Testament - Shadow People | Guitar Breakdown (By Ear) + Full Playthrough

Today I want to do something different so I want to share with you the process I go through when learning songs. Here I’m learning each riff one by one as well as the solos, talking through what I’m hearing, and then doing a full playthrough at the end. This is something I’ve never done before and I think it can be very educational and interesting, especially for other guitar players. I’m leaving the mistakes in and I haven’t checked with the band, saw any covers or tabs and I’m just learning from what I hear so I could be completely wrong but this is how I’ll play it!

The song is so awesome and everyone in the band does everything perfectly - awesome drums by Chris Dovas (love the drum intro), bass by Steve Di Giorgio, amazing vocals by Chuck Billy, Eric Peterson’s heavy riffs and his fun Wah solo, and Alex Skolnick’s beautiful harmonies and his super cool solo! I had such a blast learning this and I’m super excited for their upcoming album "Para Bellum" coming out on October 10, 2025!

Initially, I was planning to use the ESP ASFR1 guitar gifted to me by Alex Skolnick, as I think it’s very appropriate for a Testament song but after I started recording I realised this song is in half step down (Eb tuning). So in the end I played using my Jeff Hanneman’s guitar for this video, always ready in the "Slayer" tuning! Looks like Jeff wanted me to play his guitar for this. :)

==== Contents of this Video ====

00:00 - Intro
00:25 - Plan & Setup
01:12 - Riff 1 — Main Theme (1/14)
04:35 - Riff 2 — Verse Groove (2/14)
08:10 - Riff 1 Return (3/14)
08:23 - Interlude Lead (4/14)
10:30 - Riff Recap — Verse ↔ Main transitions (5/14)
11:10 - Riff 3 — Ringing Riff (6/14)
13:30 - Riff 4 — Alternative Picking Bridge (7/14)
14:49 - Riff 5 — Cross Picking Riff (8/14)
17:12 - Solo 1 — Alex Skolnick Solo (9/14)
21:00 - Riff 6 — Post-solo Groove (10/14)
23:45 - Riff 7 — Harmonised Riff (11/14)
26:05 - Solo 2 — Eric Peterson Solo (12/14)
31:43 - Outro Riffs — Theme Recap (Riff 1 + 2) (13/14)
33:01 - Outro Melody — Lead Over Riff (14/14)
33:34 - Wrap-up — Takeaways
35:16 - Full Playthrough — "Shadow People"
40:49 - Closing — Recap & Thanks

Notes: All music belongs to Testament and the original rights holders. This video is for study/practice.

‪@Testament‬ ‪@TheRealAlexSkolnick‬ #testament #shadowpeople #mayaneelakantan #guitar #learnwithme #byear #riffbyriff #thrashmetal #parabellum #alexskonick #ericpeterson #testamentlegions #chuckbilly #guitartutorial #metaltutorial #heavymetal