Basic Legato Technique

So next, I'd like to discuss with you a little bit of basic legato technique.

What is Legato Technique?

Legato technique is simply hammer ons and pull offs. They're the two main types of legato technique we have on guitar.

Demonstration

I'm going to play for you now a G major scale descending down. I'll pick it all first, and then I'm going to play it legato so you can hear the difference.

Now, the meaning of legato is smooth. Hopefully, it will come across that when I pick it, although it sounds kind of clean, it doesn't necessarily sound smooth.

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

Here's the G major scale:

• If I play it legato, 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. Conversely, hammer ons are when you're moving up.

Hammer Ons Demonstration

Let me just demonstrate hammer ons real quick, and then we'll do some finer examples.

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

• Again, it sounds nice and smooth on the way up.

Practicing Hammer Ons and Pull Offs

There are a few ways of practicing hammer ons and pull offs.

Isolated Practice

Let's pick the D string. We're going to pick the open D note. Then, with any finger on your left hand (it doesn't matter), I'm going to use my second finger to hammer on to the second fret.

• When I say hammer on, I mean my left hand physically hammers onto the fretboard.
• My right hand, my picking hand, isn't going to touch the string after I've played that first note.

So here's how it looks:

1. Pick the open D string.
2. Hammer on to the second fret.

Now, 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 Offs Practice

Now we can reverse that and practice pull offs.

• If I pick the second fret first and then remove my right hand (it's not going to do anything), I'm going to pull off to the open D string without picking it.

Here's what that looks like:

• Pull off: Pull off to the side of the string.
• I'm not coming directly off the string because I won't get any energy into the open string, which will result in a quiet sound.

Correct Technique:

• Treat the string like an elastic band; flick it back on itself and come off the side of the string to get a nice, powerful pull off.

Combining Hammer Ons and Pull Offs

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

• I'll pick the open D string, hammer on, and then pull off.

This combination gives us a sound, and if we add lots of those together, we can get what's called a trill if we do it fast enough.

Example: Trill

Try this 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. For example:

• Play the second fret on the G string, hammering on and pulling off from the fourth fret on the B string.

Key Points:

• It requires a little more strength from your left hand as you need to keep that back end note fretted at all times.
• Your first finger stays solid, while your third finger generates the energy for the hammer on and the elastic pull off.

Application to Scales and Melodies

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

Returning to our G major scale, we can start at the bottom and pick the first note on each new string:

• Pick, pick, hammer on, hammer on, pick, hammer on, hammer on, pick.

Descending:

When going back down, just pick the first note on each string and pull off in the opposite direction to get that smooth sound.

As opposed to all picks, legato sounds much smoother and is something you can apply to your everyday playing. Once you've got a reasonable grounding on that technique, it's a cool thing to incorporate into songs you may have learned.