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Basics of Legato Technique - Introduction

Rick Graham 210 lessons

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't.

The word derives from the Italian meaning 'tied together' or 'connected'. In musical scores it is often used as an instruction to the performer to play 'smoothly'.

In the world of the modern guitarist the term Legato has come to mean a passage/passages played with with hammers and pull offs. We can distinguish this difference in sound and tone by juxtaposing picked passages together with legato passages. With picked passages, the notes are always separated by a pick stroke but with legato passages the notes are literally 'tied together' from one to the next with no break in between.

Lets move on to the next video.

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