Lick #15: Falling Legato (Guitar Lesson LK-015) How to play

♪

Hi, how you doing?
Justin here.

In this lesson today, we're checking out
a lick I call 'Falling Legato'.

Not really sure where it got its
name from,

but it sounds pretty cool.

Lots of hammer-ons, lots of flick-offs,

fairly easy one to get fast,
works great in blues and rock.

Let's get to a close up and check it out.

♪

Okay, this lick is in E,
kind of an E blues thing.

We're using kind of, I guess,
an E Hybrid scale

which will be on the thinner string,
15, 14, 12.

On the 2nd string,
15, 14, 12.

On the 3rd string,
15, 14, 12.

And finishing with this root note here
at the 14th fret of the 4th string.

Pretty easy fingering there, really.

But we're actually, for the lick itself,

we're starting here with the 1st finger
on the 12th fret of the 2nd string.

We're gonna pick that note.

Hammer-on the 14th fret
with the 2nd finger.

Hammer-on the 15th fret
with the 3rd finger.

Then pick the thinner string,
12th fret.

Then we're going back down,

so we're gonna pick the note here
with the 15th fret, 3rd finger.

Flick-off to 14th fret.

Flick-off to 12th fret.

Now we're moving over
onto the 3rd string.

Again, starting off with the 15th fret.

Pick.

Flick to 14.

Flick to 12.

Now we go straight back up
without picking.

Hammer-on the 14.

Hammer-on the 15.

Pick the 12th fret.

Back to the 15th fret.

Flick.

Flick.

And finishing on the root note.

Now, that's probably a lot to remember.

You might want to look at
the tab on my website.

That will probably help you a lot.

Let me play it nice and slow.

♪

Now it's groups of four,

so make sure you know where
the beat is, so we've got it here.

1 e and a

2 e and a

3 e and a

4 e and a 1.

That's really important,
and what's interesting...

is that we have that flicked off note,
it's the one that falls on beat 3,

which is a bit unusual, cos normally
we like to pick on the 1, 2, 3 and 4,

and we do on all of the others,
except for that one.

The thing to practice is just do it
really slowly and evenly,

make sure you got your metronome.

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

Etc.

♪

As with all of these different licks
that I show you, the real key here is

for you to experiment with the
seed or the concept of the lick,

and see how many different
ways you can apply it,

and make up your own kind of licks.

Now, in this one, this is kind of a
whole one bar pattern,

which is quite a long lick really.

So the first thing you wanna do is,
try and break it down into little chunks.

A really good one to muck around with
is kind of like the middle of this lick,

where you've got one note picked
on one string, I'm gonna do it

on the thinnest two strings here.

So we'd have the 12th fret on
the thinner string,

and then pick the 15th fret on
the 2nd string.

Flick to the 14th.

Flick to the 12th.

Hammer the 14th.

Hammer the 15th.

And back.

Now just that little, if you
like a cycle.

♪

It's a really nice kind of
little bit of it,

and it's really, this lick is kind of
using that idea.

So, the first trick you might
wanna do is extract it,

break the lick into little chunks,

and see how many of the little chunks
you can reapply in other circumstances.

The other thing you can do is

try moving the lick to
other parts of the neck

and keeping the pattern of
flick-offs and hammer-ons

and what strings some notes
are picked on.

It's kind of complicated to
explain that one,

but those of you that are up for doing
that will understand what I mean.

See if you can move the shape of the
lick to other parts of the neck.

That's a good trick to try out as well.

So, uh, have fun with that.

Uh, hope it gives you some cool,
creative ideas,

and I'll see you for another lick
or lesson very soon.

Take care of yourselves,
bye-bye.