TALK @ PhilMusic.com - The Online Home of the Pinoy Musician
The Musician Forums => Guitar Central => Topic started by: Godin on February 07, 2005, 04:08:05 PM
-
any advice on how i can improve my legato playing?
-
Practice a lot 'til your fingers bleed! :lol:
Here are some small exercises I found helped me to play some serious legato licks. Players like Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, and John Petrucci use these alot! These exercises are aimed at people who are already comfortable with legato playing. All these notes should be hammered on with no picking - this ommits any 'click' from the first note of each string and sounds great a high speeds!
They should all be played at 60bpm at first, then moved up by 5bpm and played correctly 5 times in a row - with no gaps! Your target should be about 180-200 bpm!
This should be played with six notes per beat.
e-----------5--7--8--7--5--------
b-----------------------------8------
g-------------------------------------
d-------------------------------------
a-------------------------------------
e-------------------------------------
Make sure that you hammer-on every note! If you have problems with open string noise, try muting them by reaching across and lightly touching the strings with your right palm - Satriani style!
Here's another at 4 notes per beat:
e---------------5--------------------------
b------5--6--8-----8--6--5---------------
g---7---------------------------------------
d---------------------------------------------
a---------------------------------------------
e---------------------------------------------
This effect sounds great for lazy legato lines drifting across chords!
Here is one that goes through the whole minor pentatonic scale. This one should be played in triplets.
e--15-12----12------------------------------------------
b---------15----15-12-15-12----12-----------------
g-------------------------------14----14-12-14-12------
d-----------------------------------------------------14---
a-----------------------------------------------------------
e-----------------------------------------------------------
e----------------------------------------------------------------
b----------------------------------------------------------------
g--12---------------------------------------------------------
d-----14-12-14-12----12-------------------------14~~---
a--------------------14----14-12-14-12----12--------------
e-----------------------------------------15----15-12--------
You should rememer this pattern as it sounds great in fast blues playing. You should also try basic finger independence exercises to make sure all your fingers develop at the same rate!
e.g.
e---------------------3-4-3---------------------
b-----------------2-3-------3-2-----------------
g-------------2-4---------------4-2-------------
d---------1-4-----------------------4-1---------
a-----1-3-------------------------------3-1-----
e-1-2---------------------------------------2-1-
Thats a tricky one! Move it up through every position all the way up the neck! And remember - no cheating! Don't pick a single note!
Finally, after all your hard work, here is a reward with a monster legato lick! I play this with 6 notes per beat, but if you're new to the technique try it with triplets first.
e------------------------------------------------------------
b-------------------------------------------------6-8----
g-------------------------------------4-5-7/5-7-9------
d-------------2-----------2-4-5/4-5-7-----------------
a-------2-3-5---5-3-2-3-5-----------------------------
e-2-3-5-------------------------------------------------
e----6-8-10/12-10-8------------------10-12-14-15~~
b-10----------------12-10-8/10-12-14-----------------
g-------------------------------------------------------------
d-------------------------------------------------------------
a-------------------------------------------------------------
e-------------------------------------------------------------
Take all these exercises slowly at first and then build up the speed - the philosophy I follow is "speed is a by-product of accuracy." Remember - no speed is too fast! These can be played at and up to 240 bpm! (useful info for any shredheads out there!)
I hope that helps.
-
nice workout you got there...i believe that legato playing in itself is based on the player's personal approach or style: not all who are adept to the technique can pick every note fast, and not all those who shred with the pick can do legato cleanly.
-
Any help will do.. eventually siguro i can adapt it to my current style :)
-
yeah, and constant practice is a BIG factor.
-
a good habit would be to make sure your fingers are always perfectly perpendicular to the fretboard...ala randy rhoads...
-
i used to start slow, play as clean as i can and use a metronome, make sure every note is clean...take note of muscle memory. :wink:
-
i used the gripmaster to strengthen my fingers for the "perpendicular playing" it really helped me a lot especiallyy when you don't have the guitar with you.
richie kotzen has a good workout for legatos. of course metronome talaga dapat. :D
-
btw what is legato? :oops:
-
btw what is legato? :oops:
imagine, picking as breathing..
with legato you dont pick.. you use your left hand fingers(if youre right handed) .. it works by doing hammer ons and pull offs. :roll:
-
a good habit would be to make sure your fingers are always perfectly perpendicular to the fretboard...ala randy rhoads...
very true, classical style yan. it requires a lot of discipline, as well as strong fingers, but this is the most effective way to fluidly slur notes in bunches :)
-
nice workout super bisdak...
-
Learned Alot here! Great :D