Legato for Beginners

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Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Beginner Topic: Technique Style: Any Style

Excerpt: Welcome to the "Legato for Beginners" tutorial. By the time you go through these lessons, you should have a solid understanding of what legato is, and how we can apply it to guitar. So, what is legato? Legato is a characteristic in music where there is no separation between notes. In other words, where the notes sound very smooth when played together. There...

Media Length: 2:11

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Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Beginner Topic: Technique Style: Any Style

Excerpt: The first legato technique we're going to look at are hammer ons. The name "hammer ons" is somewhat self-explanatory. This technique is going to involve our fingers hammering on the fretboard in order to produce notes. In order to play a hammer on, what will usually happen is you'll pick a note, then after that, a finger on your fret-hand will snap on a di...

Media Length: 2:23

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Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Beginner Topic: Technique Style: Any Style

Excerpt: Now, let's focus on pull offs. With pull offs, our fingers are going to pull off the strings to produce notes. In order to play a pull off, you'll first pick a note that one of your fret-hand fingers is holding down. Then once that note is played, that same finger will pull off the string to then sound whatever note it is being pulled off to. When doing pu...

Media Length: 2:11

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Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Beginner Topic: Technique Style: Any Style

Excerpt: Lastly, let's have a look at slides. Slides are pretty much the epitome of legato. The reason for that is slides are the absolute smoothest possible transition you can have from one note to another. In order to play a slide, pick any note, then while that note is sustaining, drag your finger up or down the string to a different note. The important goal wit...

Media Length: 1:36

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Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Beginner Topic: Technique Style: Any Style

Excerpt: Okay, it's time to put these techniques to practical use! In this lesson, we'll learn a short riff that includes all 3 legato techniques we've just learned in this tutorial: hammer ons, pull offs, and slides. In this riff, you'll just be using your index and ring fingers to play the notes. And with your picking hand, just use all downstrokes to keep it simp...

Media Length: 1:06