Learn 60 years of legato guitar in 5 generation-spanning lessons

Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai, Guthrie Govan
(Image credit: Getty)

Legato is a ‘must have’ technique when developing your skills as a guitarist. It’s a way to play smooth, fluid lines, as opposed to the more regimented and percussive sound of alternate picking. 

Legato is performed with hammer-ons, pull-offs and slides played with the fretting hand. It can produce long, flowing runs, often associated with instruments such as saxophone. It’s not uncommon to hear jazz and fusion guitarists using legato to mimic their wind instrument brethren, while rock guitarists use it to execute smooth runs over extended positions at high speed.

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