Legato Workout with 3 Note per String Scales

July 2, 2009 | Legato No comments yet

Great way to work on legato technique (hammer-ons/pull-offs) is to play 3 note per string scales in different positions. Here are some patterns for the major scale:

I marked the root in every position for reference. Its always nice to know where the roots are!

Start slowly, make sure that each note is sounded equally loud and with right timing (yep, use metronome). Try to keep your fretting hand as relaxed as possible! Remember, legato is all about quick and light! Making effort to hit the string harder will not do any good. So stop and relax as soon as you feel that your hand is overstressed. You might also want to start higher on the neck, so there will be not so much stretching and gradually move down to the open position.

Do not start with running up and down the whole pattern. Try playing 3 notes on one string for a while, then play two adjacent strings up and down, then add another string, and so on. If your hand is not strong enough, you might want to cover only one pattern at a time.

Here is a sample of what I like to play on two adjacent strings, based on 1st pattern:

You can easily come up with dozen of variations!

Most importantly, do not over do this exercise! Stop as soon as you feel light burning in your fretting hand! I find that burning occurs really fast when you start playing too fast without proper warm up, and you hand is not relaxed. Take a couple minutes break and then come back to the exercise. Not following this advice may cause great damage to your hand, really!

And lastly a playing tip: you do not have to pick string at all. Use you picking hand to mute strings close to the nut instead.