Legato

[hotlixx]

This is a lesson that i'm writing to help guitarists develop a nice legato, or to help improve ones legato, i was actually inspired to do this because of a friends sloppy and horrible legato. You can also use these to help with your hammer ons and pull offs which is essentially what legato is.

HAMMER-ONS
First things first, the fingers on your left hand HAVE TO have a nice arch so that your fingertips are pressing on the string, the wider your hand stretches the more flat the arch of your fingers get, but its mainly just the pinky and ring finger, but when they're flat its harder to get a nice hammer on. Try this yourself and you'll see what i mean.

Heres a basic exercise to help develop a nice hammer on

E:-------------------------------------------------------
B:-------------------------------------------------------
G:----------------------------------------12h13h14h15----
D:---------------------------12h13h14h15-----------------
A:--------------12h13h14h15------------------------------
E:-12h13h14h15-------------------------------------------

E:--------------12h13h14h15-----------
B:-12h13h14h15------------------------
G:------------------------------------
D:------------------------------------
A:------------------------------------
E:------------------------------------



Pick only once per string, try to make it all even, listen to be sure you can hear every note clearly, try it slowly and little by little speed it up. You should also try various different finger patterns. To develop a good hammer on you need good hand strength but don't overstrain your hand, try limit strenuous legato practice to about 5-7 minutes a day.

PULL-OFFS
Now lets move onto pull offs. to do a good pull off again you need the arch in your fingers, and you're basically pulling the string, your finger needs to get a good grip onto the side of the string and you just pull down. And the excericises you do to help is basically opposite of whats up there.


LEGATO LICK
Heres a nice lick for you to use to help your legato




E:--------------------------------------------
B:--------------------------------------------
G:----12h14h15p14p12--17p15p14--15p14p12------
D:-12-----------------------------------------
A:--------------------------------------------
E:--------------------------------------------

E:--------------------------------------------
B:--------------------------------------------
G:----12h14h15p14p12--17p15p14--15p14p12------
D:-13-----------------------------------------
A:--------------------------------------------
E:--------------------------------------------

E:---------------------------------------------
B:---------------------------------------------
G:----12h14h15p14p12--17p15p14--15p14p12-------
D:-14------------------------------------------
A:---------------------------------------------
E:---------------------------------------------

E:---------------------------------------------------------
B:----------------------------------------------------------
G:----14h15h17p15p14--19p17p15--17p15p14--15p14p12----------
D:-15-----------------------------------------------12------
A:----------------------------------------------------------
E:----------------------------------------------------------



well thats my lesson and please comment on it be it good or bad.