Legato sequences

Legato means smooth and connected. On guitar it means sounding most notes with the fretting hand: pick the first note on a string, then hammer on or pull off for the rest. Once single hammer-ons and pull-offs are clean, chaining them into sequences builds fretting-hand strength and gives you fast, fluid lines that sound very different from picked ones.

By the end of this lesson you will be able to:

• Play trills and repeated hammer-on and pull-off chains with even volume.
• Play the A minor pentatonic box legato, with one pick per string.
• Play a three-note-per-string sequence legato, in groups of three.

In legato playing, the pick starts a string and the fretting hand does the rest. On each string you pick the first note only; every other note on that string is a hammer-on (going up) or a pull-off (going down).

The result sounds smoother and more vocal than picking every note, and it is often faster, because the picking hand only moves once per string. It also demands more of the fretting hand: every slurred note needs enough force to sound as loud as a picked one.

Three building blocks:

• Trills. A rapid hammer-on and pull-off between two frets, picked once. They build strength and stamina, finger pair by finger pair.
• Two notes per string. The pentatonic box played legato: pick, hammer going up; pick, pull off coming down.
• Three notes per string. Scale fragments with three notes on each string, played in groups of three. The rhythm falls naturally into triplets, which is the classic legato sound.

Legato is noisy without muting. Strings you are not playing will ring sympathetically if you let them. Keep the picking-hand palm on the lower strings and let the fretting fingers rest lightly against the higher ones.

Even volume.

1. Pick the G string at fret 5 with the index finger.
2. Hammer the ring finger onto fret 7 from about a centimetre above, landing right behind the fret wire.
3. Pull the ring finger off with a slight downward flick, so it plucks the string and fret 5 sounds again.
4. Keep the trill going and listen: all the notes should be the same volume. If they fade, slow down and hammer from higher.

Descending three per string. Put fingers 1, 2 and 4 on frets 5, 7 and 8 of the high e before you start. Pick fret 8, pull off to 7, pull off to 5. Then move to the B string: fingers on 5, 6 and 8, pick 8, pull off twice. Fingers should be in place before you need them.

Do these in order. Each one is small. Tick the ones you have practised.

• 1.Trill pairs

  4 min

  1. On the G string, put the index on fret 5. Pick once and hammer on to fret 7 with the ring finger, then pull off back to 5. Keep going without picking again.
  2. Do 15 seconds each for finger pairs 1-2, 1-3, 1-4 and 2-4.
  3. Rest the hand between pairs.

  You have it when

  • Each trill keeps going for 15 seconds without dying away.
  • The notes are even in volume and time.
  I practised this one

• 2.Legato pentatonic

  5 min · 60 → 90 BPM

  1. In A minor pentatonic box 1, going up: pick the first note on each string and hammer on to the second.
  2. Coming down: pick the higher note on each string and pull off to the lower.
  3. Play two notes per beat. Then try triplets: three notes per beat across the strings.

  You have it when

  • You can play up and down the box with one pick per string at 80 BPM.
  I practised this one

• 3.Sequence in threes

  4 min · 60 → 80 BPM

  1. On the high e string, play A natural minor notes at frets 5, 7 and 8: pick 5, hammer 7, hammer 8.
  2. Then pull off 8 to 7 to 5, picking only the 8.
  3. Continue the pattern down to the B string (frets 5, 6, 8) and the G string (frets 4, 5, 7).
  4. Loop the descending run in triplets.

  You have it when

  • You can play the three-string run in triplets at 70 BPM with even notes.
  I practised this one

Even volume matters more than speed. Start at 60 BPM with two notes per beat; move to triplets and then sixteenths only when every slurred note is as loud as the picked one.

• Hammered notes much quieter than picked ones. Hammer from a little higher and land on the fingertip right behind the fret wire. Slow down until the volumes match.
• Pull-offs that just lift the finger. Pull slightly down (towards the floor) as you leave the string, so the finger plucks it.
• Unwanted strings ringing. Legato is noisy without muting. Rest the picking-hand palm on the lower strings and let fretting fingers lightly touch the strings above.

Legato runs make fast phrases sound fluid and vocal. Use a short legato flurry at the end of a phrase in your improvisation, then follow it with a held, vibrato note.

Short version (10 minutes)

Trill pairs for one minute each hand position, then the legato pentatonic box.

Standard version (about 30 minutes)

Do all three exercises, then improvise for two minutes over Am, using at least one legato run in every phrase.

• Pick once per string; the fretting hand does the rest.
• Hammer hard, pull down: every note at the same volume.
• Mute with both hands to keep it clean.
• Evenness first, then speed.

You are ready to move on when you can honestly say:

• I can trill each finger pair for 15 seconds evenly.
• I can play A minor pentatonic box 1 legato, one pick per string, at 80 BPM.
• I can play a three-note-per-string legato run in triplets.