Basic Legato Technique for Guitar

Introduction to Legato Technique

So next, I'd like to discuss with you a little bit of basic legato technique. Legato technique is simply hammer-ons and pull-offs. These are the two main types of legato techniques we have on guitar.

Playing the G Major Scale

I'm going to play for you now a G major scale descending down. I will:

1. Pick it all first.
2. Play it legato.

This way, you can hear the difference.

The meaning of legato is "smooth." Hopefully, you'll hear that when I pick it, although it sounds kind of clean, it doesn't necessarily sound smooth.

When I play it legato, hopefully, you'll agree that it sounds smoother with hammer-ons and pull-offs than when I play it all picked.

G Major Scale Examples

Here's the G major scale:

• Descending: I'm just picking with my right hand. As I cross the strings, I'm picking the first new note on each new string. Other than that, all the power from the notes is generated from my left hand.

So that was me descending the G major scale using pull-offs. Pull-offs are when you're moving down a legato phrase.

• Ascending: Hammer-ons are when you're moving up. Let me demonstrate hammer-ons real quick, and then we'll do some finer examples.

Hammer-Ons Demonstration

Here's the G major scale performed ascending using hammer-ons.

Okay, again, it sounds nice and smooth on the way up.

Practicing Hammer-Ons and Pull-Offs

There are a few ways to practice hammer-ons and pull-offs. Let me show you them in isolation.

D String Exercise

Let's pick a string. We'll pick the D string:

1. Pick the open D note.
2. With any finger on your left hand (I'm going to use my second finger), hammer on to the second fret.

When I say hammer on, what that means is just my left hand: it's a really good word for it, "hammer on." I'm hammering onto the fretboard.

• Important Note: My right hand (the picking hand) isn't going to touch the string after I've played that first note.

Hammer-On Technique

• Really slow, I'm going to pick and then hammer on.
• You can see that my right hand's well out of the way.

If I'm not putting enough energy into the string, I'll get a really quiet hammer on. That's something we don't want. We want the hammer-on to sound the same volume as the picked note, if possible.

Pull-Off Technique

Now, let's reverse that and practice a pull-off:

1. Pick the second fret first.
2. Remove your right hand (it's not going to do anything).
3. Pull off to the open D string without picking it.

You can see that what I'm doing is actually pulling off to the side of the string.

• Tip: I'm not coming directly off the string because I won't get any energy into the open string. It'll sound really quiet.

Combining Hammer-Ons and Pull-Offs

If we put them together, we can get a hammer on and a pull off:

• I'm going to pick the open D string, hammer on, and then pull off, and we get this.

If we add lots of those together, we'll create what's called a trill if we do it fast enough. Here's a trill with the first finger.

This is something you can practice on any open string and any fretted note. You could also do it on two fretted notes if you wanted to.

For example, let's say second fret on the G string, hammering on and pulling off from the fourth fret on the B string. We get this.

Left Hand Strength

It requires a little more strength from your left hand here because we need to constantly have that back-end note fretted.

• Tip: That first finger should stay nice and solid, and our third finger will be generating the energy for the hammer-on and the kind of elastic pull-off for the pull-off off the side of the string.

Application to Scales and Melodies

As soon as you're comfortable with it on one string, that's when you should start applying it to scales or melodies that you may have learned.

Going back to our G major scale, we can start at the bottom and:

1. Pick the first note on each new string.
2. Follow this pattern: pick, pick, hammer on, hammer on, pick, hammer on, hammer on, pick.

Descending Scale Pattern

For the descending scale, we'll do the opposite:

• We still pick the first note on each string, but we'll be pulling off in the opposite direction.

You just get that really smooth sound, as opposed to all picks; it just sounds much, much smoother.

Conclusion

This is something that you can apply to your everyday playing. Once you have a reasonable grounding on that technique, it's quite a cool thing to incorporate into songs that you may have learned.