Building Your Arsenal: Five Minutes For Flowing Legato

Alright folks, today's lesson is about a technical exercise I came up with and successfully used to improve my ability to play fast legato passages. It can be used by all levels of guitarists with the correct practice approach. Beginners should treat each bar of music as a seperate exercise in itself and over time, work towards trying to combine them into Voltron.

Before we get into it, a quick word on technical exercises -- while some will agree and some will disagree with me, it is my personal philosophy that technical exercises are a necessary part of your development as a guitar player but they should not be the number one priority in your practice schedule. I would recommend devoting the first five to fifteen minutes of your practice session to technical exercises each day and then spend the rest of the time learning, practicing, or writing music as these activities will have a more beneficial impact on your ability to, "just play".

That said, if you would like to develop long, flowing legato lines in the style of Randy Rhoads or Joe Satriani, consider this a crucial exercise. We'll start with the first three bars. please note that the, "1 + t a 2 + t a," line above the tablature is just another way of telling you to play this exercise in straight sixteenth notes (i.e. count it like, "one-a-noth-er two-a-noth-er... "

Remember: play this at a tempo you feel comfortable playing it at and won't make mistakes frequently.

Descending legato etude in A minor

    1 + t a 2 + t a 1 + t a 2 + t a 
E|--5-7-8-7-8-7-5-------------------
B|----------------8-5-6-8-6-8-6-5---
G|--------------------------------9-
D|----------------------------------
A|----------------------------------
E|----------------------------------


    1 + t a 2 + t a 1 + t a 2 + t a
E|----------------------------------
B|----------------------------------
G|--5-7-9-7-9-7-5-------------------
D|----------------9-5-7-9-7-9-7-5---
A|--------------------------------8-
E|----------------------------------


    1 + t a 2 + t a 1 + t a 2 + t a
E|----------------------------------
B|----------------------------------
G|----------------------------------
D|----------------------------------
A|--5-7-8-7-8-7-5-------------------
E|----------------8-5-7-8-7-8-7-5-7-

Note: The only note you should pick in this entire passage is the first one! I excluded the "p" and "h" notation for hammer ons and pull-offs because it would have been too obnoxious. 

Holy cow, right? How are we going to change strings without picking? This exercise is designed to do two things: improve your pinky and your ability to change strings with hammer-ons. The pinky is an especially weak digit for new and seasoned players alike and so I have designed this exercise to attack the pinky above anything else. I'm going to break this exercise down bar by bar for you.

First bar: You're going to finger all of this with one finger per fret until you get to the last note. This bar in particular is very useful for teaching yourself how to switch between that 1-2-4 scale fragment and the 1-3-4 scale fragment on the adjacent string. Hammer on to that note on the 9th fret at the end of the bar with your pinky as you enter what I would call, "the stretch fingering". 

Second bar: This 1-3-5 scale fragment can be played with your index, middle, and pinky fingers. That is how I would play it, anyways. If you like, you can play it with your index, ring, and pinky fingers, but for me, it is much easier for me to place the stretch between my index and middle finger. If you took my advice and used your index, middle, and pinky fingers to play this bar, hammer on to that final note with your ring finger and continue with the stretch fingering as you go into the last bar. If you used your index, ring, and pinky to play this bar, then play the last note with your pinky. 

Third bar: This repeats the 1-3-4 scale fragment that we started the scale with. If you used your index, ring, and pinky to play the last bar, you will want to use that same combination for this bar. That's fine and dandy, but if you used my recommendation of the index, middle, and pinky finger combo for the last bar, then you will play that 1-3-4 scale fragment with your index, middle, and ring finger respectively. This has the added benefit of working out your stretch fingering in a different way from the last bar, plus you get to practice this commonly seen scale fragment with a different combination of fingers from the first bar.

Did I mention that was only the first half of the exercise?

Ascending legato etude in A minor

   1 + t a 2 + t a 1 + t a 2 + t a
E|----------------------------------
B|----------------------------------
G|----------------------------------
D|---------------------------5------
A|-----------5-----5h7h8p7h8--h8p7--
E|-5h7h8p7h8--h8p7------------------

   1 + t a 2 + t a 1 + t a 2 + t a
E|----------------------------------
B|---------------------------5------
G|-----------5-----5h7h9p7h9--h9p7--
D|-5h7h9h7h9--h9p7------------------
A|----------------------------------
E|----------------------------------

   1 + t a 2 + t a 1 + t a 2 + t a
E|-----------5-----5h7h8p7h8p7p5h8--
B|-5h6h8p6h8--h8p6------------------
G|----------------------------------
D|----------------------------------
A|----------------------------------
E|----------------------------------

Note: Hammer-ons have been notated with "h" and pull-offs have been notated with "p". 


Alright, so this one you can't play with a single pick stroke. Because of that, I have notated when to hammer on and pull-off. This targets the same areas as the previous exercise but adds in a new twist-- when you skip up to the next string, you come back down to the previous string for two more notes before moving on to the next string entirely. 


As for notations on each bar, they are essentially the same as the first half of the exercise. If I could add one pointer about this half of the exercise -- make sure you are hammering on to the next string with your pinky when you I notate to! You will lose a very important part of the exercise if you do not. 

Now, as far as implementing this into your practice schedule, I would recommend you work on this exercise every day for between five and ten minutes. Ten minutes would be more appropriate if you are just getting used to this type of legato technique - you can do two minutes per bar, or if it's really difficult, you can work on a single bar for a week, then move on to the next bar the following week, etc. Once you can play all six bars from start to finish in a fluid manner, you can start practicing the whole exercise for about five minutes a day. 

If you are consistent and use this exercise in the manner I have described, you will notice some improvement in your legato ability in as little as two weeks. If you keep at it for a month or more, then you will really see the difference. Remember, all I'm asking is for you to spend five minutes a day on this once you can play the whole exercise from start to finish with good technique. Five minutes a day isn't much to ask to become comfortable with a style of playing that makes it much easier to play fast passages. Don't forget that there are other scale forms for the major scale that you could also apply these ideas to in order to make fresh new exercises of your own. 

If you enjoyed this lesson, stay tuned as I will be posting a variation on it that will improve your two-handed legato within the next couple weeks.  

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