Legato Playing Techniques

Okay, then, let's take a look at another technique, or perhaps I should say series of techniques. We're going to look at legato playing now.

What is Legato?

If you ever hear the term legato, what that's referring to is a smooth way of playing. For guitar players, this means:

• Instead of picking all the notes of a phrase,
• We're going to use hammer-ons and pull-offs to play the same phrase,
• Resulting in a really smooth sound.

Exercise Overview

The exercise I'm going to show you is just on one string. It's a great exercise not only for:

• Building good legato technique,
• But also for building up strength and independence in your left hand.

This is actually a Paul Gilbert lick. He's more known for his alternate picking techniques than his legato, although he's phenomenal at both. This is a lick that I know he uses a lot, so we've got him to thank for this lick here.

Starting the Exercise

• It really doesn't matter where we play this on the guitar. Let's play it down here in A minor.
• We're going to start all on the E string with the little finger on the eighth fret.
• The only time we're going to pick a note is to start this lick off once we've played the C note.

Right hand: Doesn't do anything other than make sure the other strings stay nice and quiet while we do our legato thing with our left hand.

The Lick Steps

1. Pick the C note.
2. Pull off to the first finger on A (fifth fret).
3. Hammer on to B (seventh fret).
4. Back up to the original note.
5. Pull off down those three notes.

Watch my right hand: It just starts the phrase off and doesn't do anything else at all.

I'm using my legato technique, which involves:

• The accuracy of a hammer-on,
• The elastic band effects of a pull-off, where I'm pulling off the side of the string.

For example, here, between my little finger and my third finger, I'm going to pull off down the side to release that fretted note on B.

Practicing the Lick

This is a fantastic little lick that you can build up a significant amount of speed with quite quickly.

• What you'll find is, if you loop this, you'll really start to feel this area work.
• The area between your little finger and your third finger is quite demanding on those two fingers.

Tips for Beginners

If you're kind of new to legato playing:

• You might initially struggle and put a lot of energy into the strings.
• Focus on relaxing your left hand as you speed up; that speed will come.

Let's gradually start off that lick and increase the speed as we go.

• Important: Keep the lower strings nice and quiet with the palm of your right hand.
• You can achieve impressive speed with this technique.

Incorporating Into Your Playing

For about 10-20 seconds, the only note I picked was the very first note, all the rest of the phrase is generated from your legato technique in your left hand.

You can change the order of the notes. For example, you might want to work your second finger more, or alternate between notes. It's a flashy lick that really isn't that challenging once you develop the fundamental hammer-on and pull-off technique.

Next Steps

The next step is incorporating that with odd picked notes to cross through strings.

• Practice through scales you know, but in a legato style.
• For instance, with the major scale:
  • Normally, this would be practiced as picked,
  • But try it legato!

Example:

• Pick, hammer-on.
• Pick, hammer-on.
• Hammer-on, pick.

This creates a completely different tone. You can apply the same on the way back down, which helps you develop your techniques further.

Conclusion

One of the most significant techniques on guitar is symbolized by the little bracket between two notes in the tab:

• If the numbers are ascending, you're doing a hammer-on.
• If the numbers are descending, you're doing a pull-off.

Have a go at that little practice lick. I think it's a great one to work on.

Let's have a look at the next technique!