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Guitar Tutorial

Basics of Legato Technique

Instructor: Rick Graham
Topic: Technique
Style: Any Style
Level: Beginner
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  • Instructor: Rick Graham Level: Beginner Topic: Technique Style: Any Style

    Excerpt: Hi and welcome to this new tutorial on the subject of Legato. I'm going to break this subject up into two tutorials which will start with the basic essentials of this technique and progress to the more advanced material in the follow up. Please remember that this is the way I approach this subject so as always, take what works for you and discard what doesn...

    Media Length: 1:45

  • Instructor: Rick Graham Level: Beginner Topic: Technique Style: Any Style

    Excerpt: The first step is to consider the left hand thumb positioning on the back of the neck. More often than not, the ideal position for the thumb is opposite somewhere between the first and second fingers of the left hand. This does provide a nice solid base to work from when applying legato technique. More recently I have also experimented with raising the thumb...

    Media Length: 2:45

  • Instructor: Rick Graham Level: Beginner Topic: Technique Style: Any Style

    Excerpt: Now that we have the thumb positioning covered, I'd like to discuss an element of playing that is not only applicaple to legato style playing but to everything and that is economy of motion. It does have it's roots based pretty firmly in legato technique for me though as with legato, the main task relies heavily on the abilities of the left hand. I first ca...

    Media Length: 4:07

  • Instructor: Rick Graham Level: Beginner Topic: Technique Style: Any Style

    Excerpt: One of the most important techniques that we need to achieve control over our legato technique is a good solid muting technique. Again, this technique will be beneficial to you whatever technique you are employing but as discussed before, the focus is in the control of the left hand. This exercise starts with the index finger of the left hand hammering on f...

    Media Length: 4:55

  • Instructor: Rick Graham Level: Beginner Topic: Technique Style: Any Style

    Excerpt: OK now that you have these basic but extremely important elements in place you will need to get practicing them in order to be ready for the follow up tutorial. It is essential that you create a solid foundation for yourself to build your legato skills upon otherwise you may not benefit as much as you could. In the next tutorial we will deal with methods of...

    Media Length: 2:15