Legato Lick

By Kris Barras

Here is an ultra-smooth Legato lick incorporating Hammer-ons and Pull-offs with Right-hand taps. This lick must be practised slowly at first, and then build up the speed with time. The are some fairly wide stretches involved so ensure that you are thoroughly warmed up before attempting this phrase at any kind of speed.

Most people find, that when learning this type of lick, it sounds very messy. This is due to the unwanted string noise from the un-played strings. To solve this you must ensure that you are muting the strings with both hands. The fret-hand should be muting the unplayed top strings via your index finger. This involves laying the finger slighty flat and fretting notes with the tip, but not the very tip. To mute the unplayed bottom strings, use the palm of your picking hand to rest slightly, preventing them from ringing out.

The Lick is using the E Altered Blues scale (E mixolydian with chromatic notes) and is best situated over an E7, E7#9 or an E alt chord.

Legato Lick Tab

Legato Lick MP3 (fast)

Check out more from Kris at www.krisbarras.com