Alright, welcome to video #8 of the Lead Guitar Quick-Start Series. In this lesson we’re
going to learn about legato technique. Legato technique is made up of two smaller techniques,
hammer-ons and pull-offs. The cool thing about legato technique is it gives your picking
hand a break and it creates a really smooth cool new sound that you can use for your leads.
We’re going to look at hammer-ons first and then we’re going to look at pull-offs.
Once we get both of those down, we’re going to put them together for full blown legato
technique and then we’re going to apply that to some of the skills you’ve learned
already in the Lead Guitar Quick-Start Series. To get started, we need to get you to learn
how to perform a hammer-on. To do that, we’re going to use our G minor pentatonic scale
that we’ve been working on. Put your first finger on the third fret of the D string and
that’s going to be the first note that you pick. Now the idea is to come down to the next
note, the next highest note on that string with your third finger after you picked that
note, but you’re not going to pick it. You just got to come hammer down on it, right?
Just like a hammer to make it sound, right? You don’t want to do it too hard; otherwise
that string will go sharp. That note will go sharp. Listen. See here, it’s a little
bit too sharp. And you don’t want to do it too soft, otherwise the string wont ring
out. You want to make sure that you do it hard enough for the string to ring out. The
idea is to make the picked note and the hammered-on note about the same volume. So just work on
that, pick, hammer-on, pick, hammer-on, make sure to come right behind the fret with your hammer-on too.
So practice that for a while until you get
comfortable with the idea of doing a hammer-on. And that’s the first half of your legato
technique. The second half of legato technique is pull-offs. Here index finger back here
on the third fret of the D string again but this time you’re going to put your third
finger on the fifth fret at the same time. You’re going to pick now. That note on the
fifth fret is going to ring out. Then what you’re going to do is pull-off of that note
on the fifth fret and it’s just like I’m plucking the string with my third finger,
right? So if I pick it and then pull-off, you get a kind of down and out motion. So pick,
pull-off, pick, pull-off. So get used to that. You don’t want to do it too hard or it will
kind of go out of tune again, right? You don’t want to do it too soft either, otherwise the
note that you’re holding down with your index finger back here wont ring out, so kind
of like that. You want to make sure to do it just in a good balance to where the note
that you pick and the note that you pull-off to are about the same volume. Just do that
over and over again – pick, pull-off, pick, pull-off.
Now if you need a couple of weeks or even a couple of months to get your hammer-ons and pull-offs
sounding good, that’s totally fine. This is a technique that’s going to take a while
to develop. Now we’re going to combine hammer-ons and pull-offs to full legato technique. So let’s
go back to those same two frets that we were just playing. Get your first finger on the
third fret of the D string. Pick that note, hammer-on to the fifth fret with your third
finger and right after you hammer-on you’re going to want to pull-off, so pick, hammer-on,
pull-off; pick, hammer-on, pull-off. And then once you get that going, pick, hammer-on,
pull-off, hammer-on, pull-off, you can just keep it going. You only have to pick the first
initial note. So that’s kind of the heart and soul of legato
technique. You pick once and then you can just do hammer-ons and pull-offs. It’s a
lot easier on the picking hand and it’s a bit smoother sounding too. Now we’re going
to apply this legato technique to our minor pentatonic scale and if you’re just jumping
in on this video, you should go back to the video on the Lead Guitar Quick-Start Series
where we learn this minor pentatonic scale shape.
The basic idea for using legato technique throughout a scale is to use hammer-ons whenever
you can when you’re ascending up the scale, and pull-offs whenever you can when you’re
descending throughout the scale. Let me show you what I mean. If you were to normally pick
through this entire minor pentatonic guitar scale, it would sound like that. When you’re
ascending, let’s work on this ascending. Pick the first note of each string then hammer-on
to the second note. So I’m picking the first note then hammering-on to the sixth fret with
my pinky, and those are the two notes on that string. Now go over to the next string. Pick the
first note on the third fret, index finger is there. Hammer-on to the next note, in this
case it’s your third finger on the fifth fret. Next string over, pick, hammer-on. Next
string over, pick, hammer-on. Same thing on the next string, pick the lowest note, hammer-on
to the highest note then the last string same exact thing.
So here’s how that would sound, beginning to end without stopping. Listen to how much smoother it sounds than picking each note.
Now this may be a little bit more difficult for you because
it’s quite a workout for your pinky but work through it. Work on developing that pinky
and strengthening it up too. Now let’s work on descending through the
scale. Get your first finger in place back here on the third fret and your pinky in place
here on the sixth fret. What you’re going to do is pick the first note, pull-off to
that lower note where your index finger is already there waiting, right? So pick, pull-off.
And there are a couple different schools of thought here as far as technique for this.
You can do it like we just did with your index finger planted back here, or you can pick
and kind of come down on that third fret with your index finger too. Either way is fine,
just kind of experiment with both of those and see which one works better for you. But pick,
pull-off, go to the next string, exact same thing, pick, pull-off. Next string, pick,
pull-off, pick, pull-off, pick, pull-off, pick pull-off. And don’t forget about all
the muting tips that I gave you with your picking hand and your fretting hand. Those
are going to come in real handy here. So work on that. Work on ascending through the scale
and descending as well and you don’t have to keep the scale going all in one direction,
up and down. You can mix the notes up too. The idea here is to give you a new tool to
make your playing sound smoother. So go through the three scales we’ve learned – the minor
pentatonic scale, the major scale and the major pentatonic scale and apply legato technique
to those. The major scale is going to be a little bit
harder than the major pentatonic scale or the minor pentatonic scale, because you have
more notes #1 and #2 some of the strings have two notes, some of the strings have three notes.
So let me just go through that for you real quick. The first string, the low E string, pick,
hammer-on. Next string over you have three notes on, so you’re going to pick the first note,
then hammer-on, hammer-on. Same thing on the next string, pick, hammer-on, hammer-on. Next
string over same thing, pick, hammer-on, hammer-on. Next string over only has two notes, so pick,
hammer-on. And the next string over has three notes again. And on the way down for that
one you have pick, pull-off, pull-off; pick, pull-off; pick, pull-off, pull-off; pick,
pull-off, pull-off; pick pull-off, pull-off; pick, pull-off. So that whole scale together.
So pull up a jam track, it doesn’t matter which one, any of the ones we’ve covered so far
and try going through each of these scales using legato technique – the major pentatonic
scale, major scale, and minor pentatonic scale. I’ve put together a couple licks for you
that are going to help you learn how to apply this technique even further. This first lick
uses the minor pentatonic scale and we start off on the root note right here on the third
fret of the high E string with your first finger. Play that note with a downstroke.
Then you’re going to go over to the B string with your pinky on the sixth fret with an
upstroke, then pull-off to the third fret with the first finger then hammer back on
to the sixth fret with your pinky. So far you have, then pull-off again to your first
finger on the third fret. From there, go over to the G string fifth fret with your third
finger and play that with a down stroke, then pull-off to the third fret with your index
finger and end the lick on the root note, this G right here on the fifth fret of the D string.
This next lick is a major pentatonic scale
lick and it’s going to start off on the fourth fret of the G string with your third
finger. Play that note, downstroke, and pull-off to the second fret. Go over to the D string
with your pinky on the fifth fret, play that note, an upstroke. Pull-off to the second
fret with your index finger. So far you have, then hammer-on back to the fifth fret with your pinky
then go back over to the second fret of the G string with your first finger,
the downstroke; fourth fret with your third finger on that G string, bend up a half-step,
let it down. So, from there after the bend play the second fret of the G string and you’re
going to end on the root note of the fifth fret on the fourth string right there with
your pinky. So slowly. This last legato lick uses the major scale,
so what we’re going to do is start here on the fifth fret of the G string. Play that
note, pull-off to the fourth fret with your third finger. Pull-off to the second fret
with your index finger. So pick, pull-off, pull-off. From there you’re going to go
over to the D string, the fifth fret of the D string with your pinky. Pick that note with
an upstroke. Then go back over to the G string with your first finger. Pick that note with
a downstroke, hammer-on to the fourth fret with your third finger, hammer-on to the fifth
fret with your pinky. Here’s the whole thing from the beginning. And to finish this lick
we have to learn a little new technique. You’re going to grab the third fret of the B string
with your middle finger, and from there you’re going to roll or collapse that middle finger
over to the third fret of the high E string. So you’re going to have to learn how to roll
that middle finger over to get both of those notes. You’re going to want to let up on
the pressure on that B string so it doesn’t ring out, so you have this total.
Once you can play all these licks, just pull off the jam tracks and start experimenting
around for yourself using a legato technique with these skills, making up your own stuff.
I hope this lesson has given you a new tool that you can use to further your self-expression
on a guitar. In the next lesson I’m going to give you some tips for developing solos,
so we’re going to start putting everything that we’ve worked on so far together and
after that we’ll learn your first guitar solo. If you have any questions about legato
technique, leave them here. I’ll get back to you. You can also email me nate@guitarsystem.com.
See you.