Legato Guitar Technique
Using legato technique on the guitar can give you a smoother more fluid sound than you would get if you were to pick every note. Legato technique is made from a combination of hammer-ons and pull-offs. If you don’t know what those are we will go over each one for you.
A hammer-on is when you come down on a note with your finger without picking it. Let’s go through a little example to help you with this idea. Put you first finger on the third fret of the low E string and leave it there. Pick that note. Right after you pick that note come down on the fifth fret of the sixth string with your third finger without picking. That is a hammer-on. You have to come down on that fifth fret hard enough to make the note sound, hence the name “hammer” on.
The second half of the legato technique is the pull-off. Go back to our example. Make sure your first finger is already on the third fret of the low E string, but this time start with your third finger on the fifth fret of the low E string. Pick that note. With that note still ringing “pull-off “ your third finger and let the note you are holding down with your first finger ring out.
You can’t just let off the pressure with your third finger because that won’t create enough volume for the note on the third fret to be heard clearly. You have to “pull-off”. It is almost like plucking the string with the finger that you are using to pull-off. Try using a kind of down and out motion to pull-off.
Check out the legato guitar lesson video and hammer-ons and pull-offs will become clear to you. Try using legato technique on the scales that you already know. This is a nice tool to pull out when you want a smoother sound.
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