Slippery Legato Lick

I describe this lick as “slippery” because when you’re playing it, it really feels like your fingers are just “Slipping” off the notes! Legato can be great to get that very fluid and smooth sound out of a guitar- and this lick is no exception. Oh, and one more thing, you won’t need your pick for this one, it’s all tapping, hammer-ons and pull-offs!

The first part of the lick combines the G major scale (at the 5th fret) in the fretting hand, with the E minor pentatonic scale (on the 12th fret) in the picking hand. It’s really a combination of G major and E minor ideas, but the overall key of the lick is G major.

…and no, those aren’t just random choices of scales! Both E minor pentatonic and G major have similar notes (actually all the notes of E minor pentatonic are in the G major scale).

The lick starts by tapping the 15th fret on the B string with your picking hand- and you’ll need to have your fretting hand ready over the 5th, 7th and 8th frets of the same string because that’s where you’re going next (hint: use your first, third and fourth fingers on your picking hand). So you tap the 15th fret, pull-off to the 5th, then hammer on the 7th. followed by the 8th fret. Then repeat the same pattern on the high E string.

After you hammer-on the 8th fret on the E string, tap the 12th with your first or second fingers (either finger will do). As you are tapping with one hand, move your fretting hand up to cover the 7th, 8th and 10th frets as the next part of the lick is like a shortened version of the previous pattern. Pull-off from the tapped note the the 10th, 8th and then 7th frets.

Next, we descend down an E minor triad (in the order: B, G, E) which is taken from an E minor chord in A shape. This chord works because E minor is a chord in the key of G major (technically called the “relative minor”). Then slide up to the 12th fret on the G string to end the lick on the root note- G.

Definitely end this lick with a bit of vibrato if you want it to really sound sweet!

Rob.

January 11, 2012 at 6:39 pm | Exercises | No comments