Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Legato Structures


Legato Structures

The idea for the following exercise came to me by listening to a piano player, and you almost wouldn't say that, because the implementation of this phrase is very "guitaristic" in nature. It involves a diatonic structure in which you play one note on one string followed by three consecutive notes played legato fashion on the upper adjacent string, the first of which is a diatonic third lower than the first note played.


Needless to say, you can, and you should implement this idea in all positions, all usual scales (major, harmonic minor, melodic minor, diminished, wholetone) all over the neck of the guitar. At first you can play the lick in one position and then you might, as it is suggested in the example above, slide from one position to another.
The ability to play this kind of phrases is very valuable in improvisation. Start slow and pay extra attention to the articulation of notes. You can also try the 3/4 version of the lick. The lick creates nice rhythmic effects on both time signatures.



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