
Stretch out those fingers and give your pick a rest with these twisted licks.
Advanced
Intermediate
- Strengthen your hammer-ons and pull-offs.
- Build fretting-hand stamina and fluidity.
- Create phrases that flow across bar lines.
Let’s take an in-depth look at how to incorporate legato techniques into your playing. In its most basic form, this is simply using various hammer-ons, pull-offs, and slides—collectively known as slurs—to create a smooth and fluid sound. Many guitarists use this technique to great effect, and Allan Holdsworth, Brett Garsed, Joe Satriani, and Eddie Van Halen are among those who have developed individual approaches to this technique.
They also play very fast and unusual note groupings that don’t have a strict regimented rhythm, which creates the effect of playing “across the beat.” Check out the legato lines on the classic Van Halen track “Drop Dead Legs.”
Drop Dead Legs (2015 Remaster)
Joe Satriani and Richie Kotzen have another approach to the technique, where they use diatonic lines based around three-note-per-string scale patterns. Satriani often plays shorts spurts of legato with long held notes, once again playing over the beat. Some great examples of this can be herd on “Flying in a Blue Dream.” Kotzen has a very strong fretting hand, and in addition to his scale-based lines, he uses his legato technique to play “outside” phrases and arpeggios.
Joe Satriani "Flying In A Blue Dream" At: Guitar Center
To my mind one of the best legato ambassadors is Brett Garsed, who uses the technique nearly exclusively. In conjunction with some hybrid picking, his legato fretwork produces a very full, rich sound. This approach takes a lot of dedication and discipline. Check out this video below of a solo Garsed performed in 1986 when he was only 23!
Brett Garsed Solo Live 1986
Fretting-hand position is very important when playing legato. I’d suggest positioning your thumb slightly lower on the back of the neck, rather than over the edge of the fretboard as you might when playing pentatonic ideas. Make sure that your fretting fingers are spaced out (roughly a finger per fret), and the notes are sounded with your fingertips. It’s also vital that you keep the fingers close to the fretboard because the pinky has a tendency to flap around slightly and is harder to control. Keeping it close means a more efficient left hand. This will also help with stamina, as your hand won’t become tired as quickly.
We should also consider the picking hand, as you will on occasion have to pick the first note in a run. It’s important not to pick too hard because you don’t want huge dynamic shifts between the plucked notes and those performed with hammer-ons and pull-offs. I’d suggest a light picking attack to match the volume of the notes initiated with your fretting hand. This is a great way to improve the interaction between the left and right hands when performing legato passages.
Another area that requires attention is muting open strings while playing legato lines. When working on the top strings, I mute the unused lower strings with the fleshy part of my palm, under the thumb. As I move my fretting hand across the strings, I gradually remove the picking-hand mute and transfer that duty to the first finger of my fretting hand.
Now let’s take a look at our examples, which include technical exercises to help you work on developing and improving the legato technique, as well as “real world” phrases based on the styles of various players.
Ex. 1 is a basic exercise that helps build strength and finger independence. It’s based around a hammer-on and pull-off idea with the first finger anchored at the 5th fret.
Ex. 1
Dig into Ex. 2 to develop both finger independence and endurance. The sequence can be tricky, so I’d suggest starting at a slow tempo and gradually building up speed. I’ve shown this pattern on the top four strings, but would encourage you to continue across the remaining strings.
Ex. 2
Ex. 3 is another timing and strength exercise that features an ascending and descending 16th-note triplet pattern. I’ve presented the sequence on the top three strings, and they should be repeated to build stamina. Practice these patterns with a metronome. You’ll really notice your fretting-hand strength improving.
Ex. 3
The goal with Ex. 4 is to be able to loop around a few times while keeping tone and time even. When ascending, use your first and second fingers, and when descending keep the fretting hands in the same position, but pull off between the fourth and second fingers. This is very tricky, but with perseverance you will achieve excellent finger independence and agility.
Ex. 4
We move on to three-note-per-string scales in Ex. 5. Although the scales are naturally arranged in groups of three, the 16th-note rhythm makes timing a bit trickier, but just as essential. When ascending, as you cross the strings start each new one with a downstroke. For the descending part of the lick, I like to start each new string with what Greg Howe calls a “hammer-on from nowhere.”
Ex. 5
Ex. 6 is another three-note-per-string exercise that’s based around two positions of G Dorian (G–A–Bb–C–D–E–F). This pattern also uses a 16th-note triplet rhythm with hammer-ons from nowhere on the descending part of the phrase.
Ex. 6
Now that some of the more technical exercises are out of the way, we can move to more stylistic legato examples. Ex. 7 is straight out of Richie Kotzen’s bag of tricks. The lick uses notes from A Aeolian (A–B–C–D–E–F–G) and moves up the 3rd string. This example is a real test for fretting-hand stamina, independence, and timing.
Ex. 7
We stick with Kotzen for Ex. 8, but this time we move to E Aeolian (E–F#–G–A–B–C–D). The phrase starts in the 8th position before shifting to the 5th, and finally ending in the 3rd position before resolving to the open 6th string.
Ex. 8
As you saw in the video above, Joe Satriani is an absolute master of legato and has made the technique a part of his signature sound. In Ex. 9, we call upon the C Lydian scale (C–D–E–F#–G–A–B) for something that could easily fit in “Flying in a Blue Dream.” Notice how we use fast flurries of notes, position shifts, and the sudden pauses on certain notes for emphasis.
Ex. 9
Ex. 10 is a John Petrucci-style phrase that’s based around the E Aeolian mode. An excellent addition to your vocabulary, this extended run features multiple position shifts and covers a large area of the fretboard.
Ex. 10
In Ex. 11, we combine arpeggios with pentatonics based in A minor. Pay attention to the wider pentatonic fingerings. Up to speed this is a great sounding lick!
Ex. 11
We move back to some Brett Garsed licks for Ex. 12. Here, we’re using notes from the A Aeolian scale on the top two strings. You’ll notice there are quite a few notes on each beat, so this is a real test of your agility.
Ex. 12
Finally in Ex. 13, we take some of Garsed’s stuff and stir in some Greg Howe. This lick makes use of three-note-per-string modal lines, string skipping, and pentatonic ideas in E minor. This is a very advanced lick, so be sure to break it down into bite-size chunks before gradually increasing the speed.
Ex. 13
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A 6L6 power section, tube-driven spring reverb, and a versatile array of line outs make this 1x10 combo an appealing and unique 15-watt alternative.
Supro Montauk 15-watt 1 x 10-inch Tube Combo Amplifier - Blue Rhino Hide Tolex with Silver Grille
Montauk 110 ReverbThe two-in-one “sonic refractor” takes tremolo and wavefolding to radical new depths.
Pros: Huge range of usable sounds. Delicious distortion tones. Broadens your conception of what guitar can be.
Build quirks will turn some users off.
$279
Cosmodio Gravity Well
cosmod.io
Know what a wavefolder does to your guitar signal? If you don’t, that’s okay. I didn’t either until I started messing around with the all-analog Cosmodio Instruments Gravity Well. It’s a dual-effect pedal with a tremolo and wavefolder, the latter more widely used in synthesis that , at a certain threshold, shifts or inverts the direction the wave is traveling—in essence, folding it upon itself. Used together here, they make up what Cosmodio calls a sonic refractor.
Two Plus One
Gravity Well’s design and control set make it a charm to use. Two footswitches engage tremolo and wavefolder independently, and one of three toggle switches swaps the order of the effects. The two 3-way switches toggle different tone and voice options, from darker and thicker to brighter and more aggressive. (Mixing and matching with these two toggles yields great results.)
The wavefolder, which has an all-analog signal path bit a digitally controlled LFO, is controlled by knobs for both gain and volume, which provide enormous dynamic range. The LFO tremolo gets three knobs: speed, depth, and waveform. The first two are self-explanatory, but the latter offers switching between eight different tremolo waveforms. You’ll find standard sawtooth, triangle, square, and sine waves, but Cosmodio also included some wacko shapes: asymmetric swoop, ramp, sample and hold, and random. These weirder forms force truly weird relationships with the pedal, forcing your playing into increasingly unpredictable and bizarre territories.
This is all housed in a trippy, beautifully decorated Hammond 1590BB-sized enclosure, with in/out, expression pedal, and power jacks. I had concerns about the durability of the expression jack because it’s not sealed to its opening with an outer nut and washer, making it feel more susceptible to damage if a cable gets stepped on or jostled near the connection, as well as from moisture. After a look at the interior, though, the build seems sturdy as any I’ve seen.
Splatterhouse Audio
Cosmodio’s claim that the refractor is a “first-of-its-kind” modulation effect is pretty grand, but they have a point in that the wavefolder is rare-ish in the guitar domain and pairing it with tremolo creates some pretty foreign sounds. Barton McGuire, the Massachusetts-based builder behind Cosmodio, released a few videos that demonstrate, visually, how a wavefolder impacts your guitar’s signal—I highly suggest checking them out to understand some of the principles behind the effect (and to see an ’80s Muppet Babies-branded keyboard in action.)
By folding a waveform back on itself, rather than clipping it as a conventional distortion would, the wavefolder section produces colliding, reflecting overtones and harmonics. The resulting distortion is unique: It can sound lo-fi and broken in the low- to mid-gain range, or synthy and extraterrestrial when the gain is dimed. Add in the tremolo, and you’ve got a lot of sonic variables to play with.
Used independently, the tremolo effect is great, but the wavefolder is where the real fun is. With the gain at 12 o’clock, it mimics a vintage 1x10 tube amp cranked to the breaking point by a splatty germanium OD. A soft touch cleans up the signal really nicely, while maintaining the weirdness the wavefolder imparts to its signal. With forceful pick strokes at high gain, it functions like a unique fuzz-distortion hybrid with bizarre alien artifacts punching through the synthy goop.
One forum commenter suggested that the Gravity Well effect is often in charge as much the guitar itself, and that’s spot on at the pedal's extremes. Whatever you expect from your usual playing techniques tends to go out the window —generating instead crumbling, sputtering bursts of blubbering sound. Learning to respond to the pedal in these environments can redefine the guitar as an instrument, and that’s a big part of Gravity Well’s magic.
The Verdict
Gravity Well is the most fun I’ve had with a modulation pedal in a while. It strikes a brilliant balance between adventurous and useful, with a broad range of LFO modulations and a totally excellent oddball distortion. The combination of the two effects yields some of the coolest sounds I’ve heard from an electric guitar, and at $279, it’s a very reasonably priced journey to deeply inspiring corners you probably never expected your 6-string (or bass, or drums, or Muppet Babies Casio EP-10) to lead you to.
Kemper and Zilla announce the immediate availability of Zilla 2x12“ guitar cabs loaded with the acclaimed Kemper Kone speaker.
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The sensation and joy of playing a guitar cabinet
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Now Kemper and Zilla bring this beautiful and powerful dream team for playing, rehearsing, and performing to the guitar players!
ABOUT THE KEMPER KONE SPEAKERS
The Kemper Kone is a 12“ full range speaker which is exclusively designed by Celestion for KEMPER. By simply activating the PROFILER’s well-known Monitor CabOff function the KEMPER Kone is switched from full-range mode to the Speaker Imprint Mode, which then exactly mimics one of 19 classic guitar speakers.
Since the intelligence of the speaker lies in the DSP of the PROFILER, you will be able to switch individual speaker imprints along with your favorite rigs, without needing to do extensive editing.
The Zilla KEMPER KONE loaded 2x12“ cabinets can be custom designed and ordered for an EU price of £675,- UK price of £775,- and US price of £800,- - all including shipping (excluding taxes outside of the UK).
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The author in the spray booth.
Does the type of finish on an electric guitar—whether nitro, poly, or oil and wax—really affect its tone?
There’s an allure to the sound and feel of a great electric guitar. Many of us believe those instruments have something special that speaks not just to the ear but to the soul, where every note, every nuance feels personal. As much as we obsess over the pickups, wood, and hardware, there’s a subtler, more controversial character at play: the role of the finish. It’s the shimmering outer skin of the guitar, which some think exists solely for protection and aesthetics, and others insist has a role influencing the voice of the instrument. Builders pontificate about how their choice of finishing material may enhance tone by allowing the guitar to “breathe,” or resonate unfettered. They throw around terms like plasticizers, solids percentages, and “thin skin” to lend support to their claims. Are these people tripping? Say what you will, but I believe there is another truth behind the smoke.
It’s the shimmering outer skin of the guitar, which some think exists solely for protection and aesthetics, and others insist has a role influencing the voice of the instrument. Builders pontificate about how their choice of finishing material may enhance tone by allowing the guitar to “breathe,” or resonate unfettered. They throw around terms like plasticizers, solids percentages, and “thin skin” to lend support to their claims. Are these people tripping? Say what you will, but I believe there is another truth behind the smoke.
Nitrocellulose lacquer, or “nitro,” has long been the finish of choice for vintage guitar buffs, and it’s easy to see why. Used by Fender, Gibson, and other legendary manufacturers from the 1950s through the 1970s, nitro has a history as storied as the instruments it’s adorned. Its appeal lies not just in its beauty but in its delicate nature. Nitro, unlike some modern finishes, can be fragile. It wears and cracks over time, creating a visual patina that tells the story of every song, every stage, every late-night jam session. The sonic argument goes like this: Nitro is thin, almost imperceptible. It wraps the wood like silk. The sound is unhindered, alive, warm, and dynamic. It’s as if the guitar has a more intimate connection between its wood and the player's touch. Of course, some call bullscheiße.
In my estimation, nitro is not just about tonal gratification. Just like any finish, it can be laid on thick or thin. Some have added flexibility agents (those plasticizers) that help resist damage. But as it ages, old-school nitro can begin to wear and “check,” as subtle lines weave across the body of the guitar. And with those changes comes a mellowing, as if the guitar itself is growing wiser with age. Whether a tonal shift is real or imagined is part of the mystique, but it’s undeniable that a nitro-finished guitar has a feel that harkens back to a romantic time in music, and for some that’s enough.
Enter the modern era, and we find a shift toward practicality—polyurethane and polyester finishes, commonly known as “poly.” These finishes, while not as romantic as nitro, serve a different kind of beauty. They are durable, resilient, and protective. If nitro is like a delicate silk scarf, poly is armor—sometimes thicker, shinier, and built to last. The fact that they reduce production times is a bonus that rarely gets mentioned. For the player who prizes consistency and durability, poly is a guardian. But in that protection, some say, comes a price. Some argue that the sound becomes more controlled, more focused—but less alive. Still, poly finishes have their own kind of charm. They certainly maintain that showroom-fresh look, and to someone who likes to polish and detail their prized possessions, that can be a big plus.
“With those changes comes a mellowing, as if the guitar itself is growing wiser with age.”
For those seeking an even more natural experience, oil and wax finishes offer something primal. These finishes, often applied by hand, mostly penetrate the wood as much as coating it, leaving the guitar’s surface nearly bare. Proponents of oil and/or wax finishes say these materials allow the wood to vibrate freely, unencumbered by “heavy” coatings. The theory is there’s nothing getting in the way—sort of like a nudist colony mantra. Without the protection of nitro or poly, these guitars may wear more quickly, bearing the scars of its life more openly. This can be seen as a plus or minus, I imagine.
My take is that finishes matter because they are part of the bond we have with our instruments. I can’t say that I can hear a difference, and I think a myth has sprouted from the acoustic guitar world where maybe you can. Those who remove their instrument’s finish and claim to notice a difference are going on memory for the comparison. Who is to say every component (including strings) went back together exactly the same? So when we think about finishes, we’re not just talking about tone—we’re thinking about the total connection between musician and instrument. It’s that perception that makes a guitar more than just wood and wire. The vibe makes it a living, breathing part of the music—and you.