chrismcx
Verified buyer
12/07/24
Chris Buono,s Legato.
another really great course by one of truefires best teachers, much of the content is quite advanced which will really give my playing a lift if I manage to master legato .
Take 5: Legato
Accelerated Study Program for Legato on Guitar
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About this course
Put simply legato means ‘smooth and flowing’ and to achieve that sound guitarists utilize a trio of go-to techniques: hammer-ons, pull-offs, and slides. All three of those techniques work together to produce the legato sound, and all three also have a variety of iterations that guitarists need to have a grip on. This Legato edition of Take 5 from Chris Buono is an accelerated curriculum designed to help you build a solid foundation for this essential technique.
Chris kicks off the course with a quick primer on legato where you’ll drill down on these key techniques and their various iterations. Chris will demonstrate how to combine them to achieve a smooth and seamless legato sound.
”This course will focus on the legato big three: hammer-ons, pull-offs, and slides. The success of the first two highly depends on your fret hand positioning, which starts with your fret hand thumb placement. Your thumb, as well as your wrist and arm positioning, must be aligned in a way all four fretting fingers feel balanced and strong when fretting. With that in place, you can start to develop strong hammer-on and pull-off techniques.
When it comes to sliding, you'll need more than just good fret hand habits and posture. The name of the game is unwanted string noise. When sliding, you need to have a good secondary muting technique in place so as to only hear the notes you're sliding.
Once you have a solid foundation established, the real work begins, but it won't feel like it at all. Legato is fun and sounds cool even in its simplest forms. In this course, I'll introduce many forms including fundamental approaches to hammer-ons, pull-offs and sliding, grace note phrasing, rolling legato, alternate legato, and legato picking. I'll also bring in related supporting techniques like palm muting, string skipping, hybrid picking, and bending.”
Chris will then guide you through five legato performance studies, from basic to more sophisticated approaches. The five performance pieces cover a range of legato styles inspired by legato mavens Eddie Van Halen, Joe Satriani, Allan Holdsworth, Steve Vai, Jimi Hendrix, and Paul Gilbert
Chris will explain and demonstrate all of the key concepts and approaches along the way. You’ll get standard notation and tabs for all of the Performance Studies. Plus, Chris includes all of the rhythm tracks for you to work with on your own. In addition, you’ll be able to loop or slow down any of the videos so that you can work with the lessons at your own pace.
Grab your guitar and let’s Take 5 with Chris Buono!
_________
TrueFire’s Take 5 courses feature an accelerated curricular approach to help students get up to speed quickly on a particular style or technique. Each Take 5 course starts with a primer on the particular style or technique and then guides the student through 5 performance studies progressing from basic applications to more sophisticated approaches.
Chris kicks off the course with a quick primer on legato where you’ll drill down on these key techniques and their various iterations. Chris will demonstrate how to combine them to achieve a smooth and seamless legato sound.
”This course will focus on the legato big three: hammer-ons, pull-offs, and slides. The success of the first two highly depends on your fret hand positioning, which starts with your fret hand thumb placement. Your thumb, as well as your wrist and arm positioning, must be aligned in a way all four fretting fingers feel balanced and strong when fretting. With that in place, you can start to develop strong hammer-on and pull-off techniques.
When it comes to sliding, you'll need more than just good fret hand habits and posture. The name of the game is unwanted string noise. When sliding, you need to have a good secondary muting technique in place so as to only hear the notes you're sliding.
Once you have a solid foundation established, the real work begins, but it won't feel like it at all. Legato is fun and sounds cool even in its simplest forms. In this course, I'll introduce many forms including fundamental approaches to hammer-ons, pull-offs and sliding, grace note phrasing, rolling legato, alternate legato, and legato picking. I'll also bring in related supporting techniques like palm muting, string skipping, hybrid picking, and bending.”
Chris will then guide you through five legato performance studies, from basic to more sophisticated approaches. The five performance pieces cover a range of legato styles inspired by legato mavens Eddie Van Halen, Joe Satriani, Allan Holdsworth, Steve Vai, Jimi Hendrix, and Paul Gilbert
Chris will explain and demonstrate all of the key concepts and approaches along the way. You’ll get standard notation and tabs for all of the Performance Studies. Plus, Chris includes all of the rhythm tracks for you to work with on your own. In addition, you’ll be able to loop or slow down any of the videos so that you can work with the lessons at your own pace.
Grab your guitar and let’s Take 5 with Chris Buono!
_________
TrueFire’s Take 5 courses feature an accelerated curricular approach to help students get up to speed quickly on a particular style or technique. Each Take 5 course starts with a primer on the particular style or technique and then guides the student through 5 performance studies progressing from basic applications to more sophisticated approaches.
What you'll learn
- Apply hybrid picking to add snap to higher notes in double stop passages
- Navigate a 10-bar blues progression with Hendrix-style embellishments
- Play rhythm guitar parts that function as lead guitar simultaneously
- Integrate grace note phrasing vs. in-time legato phrasing for musical variation
- Develop third finger arching technique for proper span and control
Release date: 01/10/2019 • 1h 20m runtime
Sample lessons
Level 4: Legato
Overview
Level 4: Legato
Performance
Level 4: Legato
Breakdown
Level 5: Legato
Overview
What's included
18 lessons • 6 charts • 5 Jam Tracks
Take 5: Legato
Hello from the Jersey Shore! This is Chris Buono and welcome to Take 5: Legato. Put simply, legato means "smooth and flowing". To achieve that sound, we guitarists have a trio of go-to techniques: hammer-ons, pull-offs and slides. All three have a collection of iterations we will explore throughout this course within five levels that increase in difficulty.
The five performance pieces cover a range of legato styles inspired by legato mavens Eddie Van Halen, Joe Satriani, Allan Holdsworth, Steve Vai, Jimi Hendrix and Paul Gilbert. While these guys are known for other stylistic achievements in varying degrees, it is their legato technique that's in focus. Altogether, you have great set of mild to challenging legato-based jams that will absolutely help you build a solid foundation in this essential technique.
All of the performances are notated in Guitar Pro and come as a PDF as well. You'll also access to the jam tracks to work with on your own.
This course will serve as a great tool for you to learn how to use legato techniques in a musical context. Bassist Steve Jenkins and I went the distance on these tracks to make sure you are inspired to play. So...let's do that!
Ready?! Let's get started...
The five performance pieces cover a range of legato styles inspired by legato mavens Eddie Van Halen, Joe Satriani, Allan Holdsworth, Steve Vai, Jimi Hendrix and Paul Gilbert. While these guys are known for other stylistic achievements in varying degrees, it is their legato technique that's in focus. Altogether, you have great set of mild to challenging legato-based jams that will absolutely help you build a solid foundation in this essential technique.
All of the performances are notated in Guitar Pro and come as a PDF as well. You'll also access to the jam tracks to work with on your own.
This course will serve as a great tool for you to learn how to use legato techniques in a musical context. Bassist Steve Jenkins and I went the distance on these tracks to make sure you are inspired to play. So...let's do that!
Ready?! Let's get started...
Legato Technique
This course will focus on the legato big three: hammer-ons, pull-offs and slides. The success of the first two highly depend on your fret hand positioning, which starts with your fret hand thumb placement. Your thumb as well as your wrist and arm positioning must be aligned in a way all four fretting fingers feel balanced and strong when fretting. With that in place, you can start to develop strong hammer-on and pull-off techniques.
When it comes to sliding, you'll need more than just good fret hand habits and posture. The name of the game is unwanted string noise. When sliding, you need to have a good secondary muting technique in place so as to only hear the notes you're sliding.
Once you have a solid foundation established, the real work begins, but it won't feel like it at all. Legato is fun and sounds cool even in its simplest forms. In this course, I'll introduce many forms including fundamental approaches to hammer-ons, pull-offs and sliding, grace note phrasing, rolling legato, alternate legato and legato picking. I'll also bring in related supporting techniques like palm muting, string skipping, hybrid picking and bending.
When it comes to sliding, you'll need more than just good fret hand habits and posture. The name of the game is unwanted string noise. When sliding, you need to have a good secondary muting technique in place so as to only hear the notes you're sliding.
Once you have a solid foundation established, the real work begins, but it won't feel like it at all. Legato is fun and sounds cool even in its simplest forms. In this course, I'll introduce many forms including fundamental approaches to hammer-ons, pull-offs and sliding, grace note phrasing, rolling legato, alternate legato and legato picking. I'll also bring in related supporting techniques like palm muting, string skipping, hybrid picking and bending.
Level 1: Legato
Level 1 is a gutsy rocker in Am and serves as a perfect down tempo platform for introducing some fundamental legato concepts while having some fun doing it. The vibe hearkens back to my earliest days learning to play via brawny classic rock riffs from everyone from Jethro Tull to Aerosmith to Led Zeppelin.
You'll notice the hammer-ons and pull-offs are purposely made up of only two notes and are all individual instances that toggle between 16th and grace note phrasings. There's even a trill thrown in there. On the sliding front you have simple half and whole step slides and that are also treated to an occasional grace note. Some strategic palm muting in-between legato instances was thrown in for good measure.
The melodies are based out of minor pentatonic and minor blues scales. These are roads we all happily travel often – and for good reason. It sounds great and legato makes it sound even better!
Take note: Pay close attention to the grace note phrasing. I find that technique to be the secret ingredient in many seasoned players sauce.
You'll notice the hammer-ons and pull-offs are purposely made up of only two notes and are all individual instances that toggle between 16th and grace note phrasings. There's even a trill thrown in there. On the sliding front you have simple half and whole step slides and that are also treated to an occasional grace note. Some strategic palm muting in-between legato instances was thrown in for good measure.
The melodies are based out of minor pentatonic and minor blues scales. These are roads we all happily travel often – and for good reason. It sounds great and legato makes it sound even better!
Take note: Pay close attention to the grace note phrasing. I find that technique to be the secret ingredient in many seasoned players sauce.
Level 1: Legato
This first performance is purposefully set to a tempo that allows you to concentrate on the nuances. It's also slow enough where I could throw some semi-challenging combinations of the three techniques and feel confident you'll get them under your fingers with a reasonable amount of practice. I'm setting the bar a little high right from the onset because, let's face it: legato in its basic form is a technique that tends to come quickly. So, let's ride that wave as far as the crest will take us and really make a go at this!
Level 1: Legato
In the first bar you have a hammer-on, a slide, a pull-off, a palm mute and grace note hammer-on within two beats. It is this seemingly hodge podge of technique that makes the difference between a good player and seasoned one. It makes that sound of this motif have the edge everyone wants to have in their playing. That element that makes you stand out and sound like a pro.
That ante is upped starting in bar 5, where the same techniques are applied, along with bending, to higher string range lickage based out of Am and Em pentatonic and minor blues scales as they follow the relative changes. You even get an instance of trilling, which is the rapid repetition of hammer-on/pull-offs.
While the legato technique is the focus, also keep an ear out for how the phrases end and how strongly they resolve. No matter what technique you're striving to attain and master, you have to always make the note content meaningful and musical. In doing so never forget the most important note is the last one. As your legato technique deepens and you get more adventurous it will amount to nothing if you can't complete the run with the right note in the pocket!
That ante is upped starting in bar 5, where the same techniques are applied, along with bending, to higher string range lickage based out of Am and Em pentatonic and minor blues scales as they follow the relative changes. You even get an instance of trilling, which is the rapid repetition of hammer-on/pull-offs.
While the legato technique is the focus, also keep an ear out for how the phrases end and how strongly they resolve. No matter what technique you're striving to attain and master, you have to always make the note content meaningful and musical. In doing so never forget the most important note is the last one. As your legato technique deepens and you get more adventurous it will amount to nothing if you can't complete the run with the right note in the pocket!
Level 2: Legato
Staying in Am this jam pays respects to two of my all-time influences in legato playing: Eddie Van Halen and Joe Satriani. The three key components introduced here are the combination hammer-on/pull-off move, incorporating open strings in your legato outside the open position and the sly ghost hammer-on AKA hammer-on from nowhere. Regarding sliding, you'll play longer distances that travel up and down the neck in true Satriani fashion.
Level 2: Legato
One of the keys, if not the ultimate key, to great sounding legato is a light touch. To play those hammer-on/pull-offs at the top of bars 1-4 and 13-16 it requires a delicate, yet precise hammer and release from the fret hand second finger to get the phrasing and power that those motifs need to sound real.
As I play through bars 5-12, take notice of how much I employ my fret hand third finger. When making those sliding moves up and down various distances, I use my third finger not only for balance but so I can also utilize my second and maybe first fingers to lay across the strings to cut out any unwanted string noise. You'll also see most of the hammer-on/pull-offs in bars 7-8 are my third finger. The balance just feels right to me and I'll take that every time!
As I play through bars 5-12, take notice of how much I employ my fret hand third finger. When making those sliding moves up and down various distances, I use my third finger not only for balance but so I can also utilize my second and maybe first fingers to lay across the strings to cut out any unwanted string noise. You'll also see most of the hammer-on/pull-offs in bars 7-8 are my third finger. The balance just feels right to me and I'll take that every time!
+ 11 more lessons
Reviews
7 results
mrivers3
Verified buyer
01/09/21
Excited for the journey
Only just finished working through the first performance. Already notice improved attention to detail instead of just playing through something. Placing the notes is one thing, but using "legato" changes the feel. I really like how Chris breaks down what/why he is doing what he is doing.
sam
09/09/20
A great play
Hey loved it, very informative and i learned heaps
Marcus
07/02/20
Legato Goodness for all of the fingers!
As a long-time "beginner" player that has begun to take things to the next level this course is an absolute bliss! Things that I thought to myself "this will take months to develop" suddenly started to develop much faster with persistent playing. Being at the last study (number 5 right now, Paul Gilbert style) I just can´t believe how far I´ve come in just 5 courses. Highly recommended to develop speed, dexteritiy and finger stretch!
Jason R.
03/19/19
Incredible Course!
I own several Chris Buono courses and this one just might be my favorite! You've got a little bit of everything here: a little Van Halen, a little Satriani, a little Hendrix, and even a little Paul Gilbert. These licks and solos are incredibly fun to play. My other favorite Chris Buono course is Guitar Gym: Sweep Picking; so naturally I'm hoping he will release a Take 5: Sweep Picking as a follow-up!
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