 Hello everyone and welcome to Blackstar Potential, my name is Lee Fuge and I'm here today with MusicTeacher.com and in this video we're going to talk about starting out with legato playing. All of the tones you're hearing in this video are coming from the Blackstar HT20 Mark II which is on the drive channel and the amp is mic'd with an Aston Origin Condenser microphone. Legato is a bit of a broad term in the world of guitar, it actually applies to a bunch of different techniques that fit into the same family. The term legato essentially means to join up smoothly. So what we're going to focus on in this video is looking at ways to get you started with some smooth legato playing. So with all of these exercises you can aim to push them very fast if you're into guitar players like Joe Satriani for instance who is a very fast legato player. You will want to stop building up speed on these gradually. But in the early stages don't worry about the speed, just focus on the clarity of the notes. That's the most important factor when it comes to doing the legato. So all of the exercises we're going to do are going to focus just on hammer-ons and pull-offs. You can integrate some slides into your legato playing as well but for the time being we'll just stick with hammer-ons and pull-offs. First exercise we're going to look at is an ascending hammer-on riff that plays across two different strings. We're going to be using the first, the third and the fourth fingers for this. So this lick uses the fifth, the seventh and the eighth frets on the B and E strings. What we're actually doing is a double hammer-on here. So I'm picking the fifth of the B, then I'm hammering on to the seventh and with the same motion I'm hammering on to the eighth. So you'll notice I only picked the string once. The second note comes from the force created by the hammer-on from my third to my fourth finger. And then repeating the same pattern on the high E string. So timing-wise what I'm playing there is actually a series of triplets. So that's three notes on every beat. That means we're hitting the fifth fret notes on the beat. So it's one, two, three, four. So your picking hand should only be picking four single times in an entire bar. One, two, three, four. What I like to do is down-pick the B string and up-pick the E. So as you start to build this together try and get each of those fifth fret notes to fall on the first beat and then gradually increase your speed over time. Don't worry about the speed right now, focus on the note clarity. The second exercise is the same thing but backwards this time using a series of double pull-offs. So essentially repeating the same thing but upside down now. So I'm actually starting with all three fingers in place on the high E string and picking. So you're going to hear the eighth fret note first and pulling off to the seventh and off to the five. And then I'm just repeating the same thing on the B string. So I'm picking the eighth fret, pulling off to the seven, pulling off to the five. And then pulling them together. This one can also be worked out with triplets and also your picking hand is still only picking four times except this time we're starting with the E and then going to the B. Fourth legato exercise makes for a great fast rock lick. So here is in full. So this lick actually looks a lot more difficult than it is but what we're actually doing here is we're playing sixteenth notes. So we're doing four notes across a beat but the first six notes all happen off the back of one pick stroke. So I'm actually starting by playing the seventh on the E hammering onto the eight and pull off again. Then I'm actually pulling off to the fifth of the E so this is all one motion now. So one pick stroke is going to get me all these notes. From there I'm actually hammering back to the seven and pulling off to the five again. So six notes off one pick stroke. Now that is going to take a while to build up because you do need some additional strength in the fret in hand to keep those notes ringing clear. So you may find in the early stages you do have to really hammer those notes on to get the extra clarity and volume you need but your fingers will build up in strength with a bit of repetition. So once you've done that initial six note phrase you're picking the eighth fret on the B and then the fifth on the E. So it's an eight note phrase across two beats so that's sixteenth notes but you're only picking three notes. You're picking the first note then the eighth fret on the B and the fifth on the E. The fourth leg art exercise we're going to look at is another one that builds into a great rock lick. This is sort of a pentatonic-ish looking idea so you may feel quite familiar with some of the movements in this but we are adding some additional notes. So this one has a lot more pick notes and it does sound a bit faster but we're still playing sixteenth notes but I'm picking two notes close together so I'm going one E and then the anda are handled by legato notes and then two E and the anda are handled by legato notes. So it starts with this descending phrase where I pick the fifth fret of the high E and then the eighth fret of the B. Once I've picked that eight I'm pulling off to the seven and off to the five. So that's my first beat, one E and a. Then I'm coming back up with an ascending run so I'm actually starting by going down one more note to the eighth of the G. Then I'm playing the fifth of the B and hammering on to the seven and eight. One. Two. The fifth and final exercise is a quick triplet style lick so this again is a great speed building exercise if you're working up to playing some shred guitar or some fast rock licks. This is a great one to start building in. So we're once again leaning very heavily on those double pull-offs. So the first thing I'm doing is a pull-off from the eight to the seven to the five on the high E string. So this is triplets now so that's one. Then I've got a picked ascending run here. This is also a triplet but I'm playing the eight on the B, the five on the E and the seven on the E. It's very important you pick those notes because it creates this accent. Then we're doing a pull-off again from the eight to the seven to the five and then the same on the B string. So each one of those groupings there is a triplet so it's one. Two. Three. Four. Picking wise, for this I like to go up for the first triplet. Then I alternate pick the next triplet. So I'm hitting the seventh fret of the E string there on a downbeat so it's up. Down, up, down. Then I do the next triplet as an up and the final one as a down. So there you go, there are five legato exercises to get you started. Like I said, don't worry too much about the speed, focus on the note clarity. Legato is a great technique if you want to stop building up some fast rock, fast metal and shred guitar licks. It's a very essential skill to have in your toolbox. But it does take practice, it does take work, and it does take some strength building so really take your time with this. Practice these groupings with the metronome as well to help build your speed and clarity of the notes. Make sure each note is ringing as clear as you can possibly make it. Thank you all for watching, I hope you've enjoyed this lesson. Please let us know down below in the comments how you've gotten on with these legato ideas. And if there are any topics you'd like to see us talk about in future Blackstar videos, please let us know down below. Don't forget to check out Blackstar Amplification on YouTube for more free video lessons just like this. And if you're looking for a guitar teacher in your area, please head to musicteacher.com and check out the network of great music teachers all around the country waiting to help you guys out. Thanks so much for watching and I'll see you soon.