An Introduction To Legato Playing

So if you clicked on this article that means you are here to learn about legato playing.

In this article you are going to learn the following:

• What Is Legato?

• The Legato Technique

• A Legato Excersize

• How To Use Legato In a Scale
  

So firstly we have to ask the question ...

What is Legato?

Legato by definition is the smooth transition between notes.

When we are doing legato the aim or goal is to make it so that the note from one note to the next sounds as smooth as possible.

so instead of picking each note individually, where you get a certain sound from hearing every note being accented via the plectrum.

It should sound like a smoother transition from one note to the next giving a deceptive no change in volume between notes.

it’s a subtle difference but it should sound more vocal like in its essence because a vocalist will not be stopping and sounding each note out when they reach it, a vocalist usually has a gliding quality as they reach their notes whether ascending or descending.

Using legato is a way to imitate this.

One common way to use legato is sliding into notes.

The main way you’ll be doing legato on guitar is with the legato technique.

What I mean by this is that you have to learn how to do this technique in order to pull it off.

You’ll get that joke in a minute.

The Legato Technique

When learning legato specifically on the guitar we need to take care of a few factors.  We also need to do different things with both hands. Lets start with the fretting hand on the fretting hand we need to have the hand be supported by the thumb behind the neck.  And for the thumb to trace down to the middle whilst moving vertically on the neck.

Then we take a look at the right amount of pressure needed to sound the notes.

The idea is that the last note played shouldn’t change in volume between notes.

If you are not used to doing this you may need to slam down your fingers to the right pressure to gain the sound of having notes equal in volume.

You also want to make sure you take off any fingers you are not using and to keep on fingers you are pulling off too.

We then take the hand that is not fretting and we need to talk about muting properly.

With our hand that’s next to the bridge we need to place and rest the thick part of our palm onto the back end of the bridge and then curve it forwards into the guitar.

first step

second step

What can happen if you are not too careful is that you can get whats called sympathetic ring which is when the vibration of the strings cause other strings to vibrate and cause unwanted sound to come out of your playing when you didn’t intend to.

It is for this reason muting guitar is important.

Most of legato on the guitar is a sequence of hammer ons and pull offs.

So a good way to learn legato is to combine those movements into a simple excersize.

Legato Excersize

Lets place our fingers on the 5th fret of the g string and we are going to hammer on our second finger on the 6th fret and pull off from the same fret in a continuous motion and then we are going to repeat that with each finger, so the third finger on the 7th fret and the pinky finger on the 8th fret.

What you want to do is to keep the first finger on the 5th fret so you can have something to pull off to.

I recommend adding this to your practice routine and starting slow and gradually increasing the speed when you’ve got the slower speeds nailed.

How To Use Legato In A Scale

Lastly we need to look at using this technique in a more music way for this the technique really lends itself to 3 note per string scales.

This is because the symmetry lends itself to hammering on and pulling off.

Here is the pattern but slow so you can follow along.

Focus on note clarity and accuracy.

And here it is up to speed.

As mentioned before slowly build up the speed and pay respects to each tempo by making sure it sounds good at the tempo you are practicing at before going to the next tempo.

There are more advanced things you can do with legato and many different patterns you can do also.

So if you would like to see them please stick around and there maybe an article coming your way with exactly that!