From a handbook I put together for my guitar students (hopefully to be full-length book): Legato Techniques Legato is the musical term for "smoothly connected." This is the stuff that makes a guitar really sing, like a human voice. 1. Choose two notes on your B or G string that are one fret apart, preferably around the 12th fret. 2. Pick back and forth between the two notes and pay attention to the sound. 3. Now pick only the lower note, and slide your finger to the higher note, without releasing the pressure of your finger against the freboard. Then pick the higher note and slide to the lower note. This has a different effect than picking both notes, right? Appropriately enough, this technique is called a slide. 4. Now pick the lower note, and take your second finger and bring it down like a hammer (remember to use the tip!) on the second note. This is called a hammer-on. Not as smooth as a slide, right? But, you don't hear the sound of your finger crossing over the fret as you do with a slide. The hammer on has other qualities too, as you will see. 5. Put your first finger on the lower note and your second finger on the higher note. Pick the higher note and then pull your second finger down and quickly away, as if you are plucking the string with the finger. The note held by your first finger is the one that will sound. This is called a pull-off and is the counterpart to the hammer-on. 6. The smoothest legato technique is called the bend. Use your 3rd finger grab the lower note of the pair you selected in part 1, and put your first and second fingers on the string on the string as well so that all three fingers are touching. Now pick the note and use the three fingers to push the string up towards the top of the fingerboard. You should hear the note rise in pitch as you bend the string. Excercises: 1. Practice sliding from one note to another. Choose notes that are many frets apart. 2. Do the EEE and any scales you know with hammer-ons and pull-offs (pick only the first note on each string) 3.Try to trill: hammer and pull back and forth between two notes as quickly as you can -- don't pick at all! Try this with every pair of fingers on your fretting hand, with the number of frets apart equal to how far your fingers are (1 fret for fingers 1 and 2, 2 frets for fingers 2 and 4, 3 frets for fingers 1 and 4, etc.) 4. Tap your foot or set your metronome and bend notes up and back in time. Start with your third finger bending half-steps on the G and B strings. Then try using your second finger (supported by your first finger), try whole steps, and go on to other strings. Most guitarists don't use their 1st or 4th fingers to bend, but that doesn't mean you can't! Myself I do half-step bends with my first finger sometimes, but that's as far as I care to take it.
