PICK-MORE

LEGATO

A controversial yet highly effective legato method

Contrary to other legato methods, discover how picking can benefit our legato runs. The pick-more legato method is easy and simply effective.

by Justin Liew

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword ............................................................................................................................................................................. 2

1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................................................. 3

1.1 Legato methods that didn’t work for me ............................................................................................. 4

1.1.1 Method 1 – Pick one note a string and slur the rest .............................................................. 4

1.1.2 Method 2 – Slurs only with no picking ....................................................................................... 5

1.1.3 Method 3 – Pick only when ascending ........................................................................................ 5

1.1.4 Method 4 – Hammer-ons only ........................................................................................................ 6

1.2 Method 5 – The pick-more method, the one that finally works ................................................. 7

1.3 Why pick more? ............................................................................................................................................. 8

2 Preparation and practicing ................................................................................................................................. 9

2.1 Tips ...................................................................................................................................................................... 9

3 Ideas .......................................................................................................................................................................... 10

3.1 Basic down and up-turns ........................................................................................................................ 10

3.2 The classic 6-note idea and its variations ........................................................................................ 11

3.3 1-note per string ......................................................................................................................................... 13

3.4 String skipping ............................................................................................................................................ 14

3.5 Slides ............................................................................................................................................................... 14

3.6 Chromaticism ............................................................................................................................................... 15

3.7 Side stepping ................................................................................................................................................ 15

3.8 Fixed position runs .................................................................................................................................... 16

3.9 Moving idea .................................................................................................................................................. 16

4 Closing words ........................................................................................................................................................ 18

4.1 Recommended legato listening ............................................................................................................ 18

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FOREWORD While this book is mainly aimed at guitarists struggling with traditional legato methods, if you’re new

to legato, looking for new methods or already a legato shred monster, I’m sure (hope) you’ll get

something out of this book too.

I have tried several legato methods and all didn’t turn out well until I started doing the ‘pick-more’

method featured in this book. This method involves picking more, controversial to most other legato

methods that emphasize more on just the fretting hand and slurs. Besides that, I believe this method

promotes more comfortable and relaxed hands as well. I learned this method by studying one of my

favourite guitarists, Brett Garsed’s material and am amazed by how effective this legato method is.

This book is not meant to dismiss the other methods as they have been effective on many other

players but to provide a different method to those who struggle and are looking for different

methods. In this book, we will first go through the methods I failed followed by introducing the pick-

more method as well as some practice tips and last but not least, ideas and licks. We will not be

going through a lot of theory except for a C major scale and a few chromatic notes. If I can do this on

a classical as well as an acoustic steel string guitar, I’m sure you can do it too. Please read on.

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1 INTRODUCTION Legato on guitar is typically associated with a lot of hammer-ons and pull-offs (slurs) with as little

picking as possible. The pick-more method featured in this book involves picking twice (or more)

when there are more than two notes per string. It looks controversial to what is generally

taught (less picking = more legato) but the outcome is legato lines that are more even and controlled

when executed correctly. There are various legato methods out there and I have tried 5 methods so

far and they are (I came out with the names myself):

1. Pick one note a string and slur the rest

2. Slurs only with no picking (hammer-ons from nowhere to switch strings)

3. Pick only when ascending

4. Hammer-ons only

5. The pick-more method (main focus of this book)

I did the first four and they didn’t work well for me until I discovered the 5th pick-more method

which changed my legato playing all together. Here are some benefits of the pick-more method

in my experience:

1. More even and controlled legato lines.

2. Less stress on fretting hand.

3. Works well even in the higher register of the fretboard.

4. Blends in easily with usual phrasing.

5. Works well in clean setting.

Feeling sceptical? When I first discovered this method I thought it was ‘wrong’ too. How could

picking more relate to legato? I tried it and I was blown away by how easy it actually is and my legato

lines had never been so smooth and effortless. Before diving down into details of the pick-more

method, let’s look at how the previous four methods didn’t work for me.

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1.1 Legato methods that didn’t work for me

1.1.1 Method 1 – Pick one note a string and slur the rest

First of all let’s look at Method 1, the traditional pick-one-note-a-string-and-slur-the-rest legato.

Let’s say we play a C major scale using this method and it will look something like this:

Figure 1: Method 1 – Pick one note a string and slur the rest

I believe this is how legato is taught generally. Pick one note on a string and slur the rest on that

same string until we switch string and repeat. I see many people do this and truly excel in it but I’m

not one of them unfortunately. I started off with this method and my problem was that my picked

notes were much louder than the slurred notes that the sheet should be written like this

instead with the picked notes accented:

Figure 2: Method 1 – The pick accents that ruin them all.

This is one common problem I notice in many other guitarists as well. The pick accents are taking

away the legato sound. Legato should be smooth and even. I tried picking softer but the accents

were still there and they were annoying to my ears. This method didn’t work well so I tried other

alternatives.

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1.1.2 Method 2 – Slurs only with no picking

Next here we have Method 2, slurs only with no picking. Since the accents caused by picking were a

problem, I took away all the picking. This requires a lot of hammer-ons-from-nowhere since

there’s no picking when switching strings.

Figure 3: Method 2 – Slurs only with hammer-ons-from-nowhere.

This method sounded fine for a while but it was very tiring for the fretting hand especially with

all the hammer-ons-from-nowhere.

1.1.3 Method 3 – Pick only when ascending

I moved on with Method 3. This is a mixture of method 1 and 2. I’d like to explain what I mean by

ascending and descending here as it might go against music theory as we know it. Here, ascending

merely means moving from a lower to higher string e.g. B to high E and descending

means the opposite direction e.g. G to D string in the context of this book. How the scale

moves is not of major concern here. With that in mind, we can also call this method ‘slur-only-when-

descending’ if you prefer. Nothing explains better than a sheet so here it is:

Figure 4: Method 3 – Pick one note a string when ascending, all slurs when descending.

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Perhaps it’s clearer by showing something else instead of a straight scale:

Figure 5: Method 3 – Example.

I hope the sheets show the concept behind this method clear enough. I used this method for the

longest time but it still didn’t feel right. I was still struggling.

1.1.4 Method 4 – Hammer-ons only

THE legato master, Allan Holdsworth has a unique legato method. He is all hammer-ons and no

pull-offs from what I know. This method is also praised as THE legato technique by some. Since the

master does this, I thought it should be right for me too. Mr Holdsworth would pick a bit but I took

out all the picking to practice and ended up with this:

Figure 6: Method 4 – All hammer-ons.

The reverse hammer-ons took a long time getting used to. As I worked with this method, what

should’ve sounded legato became staccato instead as I slammed my fingers on the fretboard. I

couldn’t get a smooth note to note transition. As you would’ve expected, this method didn’t work,

again. I thought, if THE method didn’t work, nothing would! It was a frustrating journey until the

moment I discovered (and rediscovered) the one method that changed my playing altogether…

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1.2 Method 5 – The pick-more method, the one that finally works In came Brett Garsed. I was aware of Mr Garsed and knew of his approach to playing legato but

didn’t give it much thought as I was busy practicing the other methods. I studied his material again

after failing all the other legato methods and finally, I GOT it. Here’s the secret, Mr Garsed would

generally pick 2 or more notes on each string with more than 2 notes. Using this method on a

C major scale would look like this:

Figure 7: Method 5 – The pick-more method on a C major scale.

This may not look legato from the ‘traditional’ view point as we are usually told that legato ‘needs’

to be done with as little as picking as possible. I was sceptical at first too. However when the scale is

played this way, the sound is surprisingly smooth despite having more picked notes. Pick strokes

aren’t of a concern here so choose whichever that fits your taste. This is how I might pick the notes:

Figure 8: Method 5 – Pick strokes example.

I might pick down-up or hybrid pick it but that’s all up to personal taste. I might pick more if there

are more than 3 notes on a string. There is no hard rule as far as pick strokes are concerned. If there

needs a rule for this legato method, it is to pick at least 2 notes one after another if there are

more than 2 notes on a string before the slurs. Sounds confusing? Don’t fret as we approach

the ‘Ideas’ section and you should have a better understanding of how this method works by looking

at the ideas and licks presented.

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1.3 Why pick more? Let us recap on the benefits of the pick-more method stated earlier:

1. More even and controlled legato lines.

Let’s look at the accented notes caused by the first pick-one-note-a-string-and-slur-

the-rest method. By picking only ONE note, that one picked note would be very

noticeable hence the accent. By picking two notes or more, the dynamics even

out. This is when two wrongs make one right!

2. Less stress on fretting hand.

With so much work involved in the fretting hand alone with the other methods,

picking more helps in balancing the work between both the picking and

fretting hands hence less stress. While picking, the fretting hand has some rest

time (although VERY short) before going into slur mode after the picking. My hands

are not strong and I can’t slur forever. By giving a little rest time for my fretting hand

with some picking, I can do my legato lines cleaner, faster and with less effort.

3. Works well even in the higher register of the fretboard.

I couldn’t do legato much above the 14th fret with the other methods as the fretting

hand struggled in keeping the notes loud with the narrowing fret to fret spacing.

Picking more helps to keep the notes’ momentum up keeping them from

dying off too fast.

4. Blends in easily with usual phrasing.

We don’t do legato all the time do we? With the usual stuff like playing melody

and all that involving a lot of picking, the pick-more legato method blends

in well without feeling too sudden as the legato runs come in. This could be just me

though.

5. Works well in CLEAN.

I believe that playing in clean is one of the most important aspects in guitar

playing. It’s fun and easier to do legato with some overdrive or distortion but what

if we have to play jazz or other genres that require a clean guitar tone? I don’t want

to ditch all my hard learned legato just because it’s clean. And I don’t want to push

things into distortion just for the sake of being able to do legato. I couldn’t do legato

in clean back then but with the pick-more method now, I can. Try doing it on

classical and acoustic steel string guitars as well.

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2 PREPARATION AND PRACTICING 1. Remember to pick the first two notes on every string you’re playing if there are

more than two notes going on that string before the slurs. This is after all what makes

the pick-more method. Make this a rule!

2. Always start slow because legato is something that sounds super horrible when done

sloppily.

3. Practice with a metronome at different tempos at different subdivisions like 8th

notes, triplets, 16th notes etc.

4. Make sure the fretting hand can do single string trills and slurs cleanly and loudly.

5. Be familiar with the major scale at all positions. Knowing other scales like melodic

minor, harmonic minor etc. is a plus but since the major scale is the most used scale in most

music, being familiar with it is definitely a must.

6. Here’s one more, play CLEAN. Remember in the previous section where I mentioned

playing clean is one of the most important aspects in guitar playing? Make sure the picked,

hammered-on and pulled-off notes’ volume is as even as possible in CLEAN. Let’s recap from

the previous section again. I used to be able to do my legato lines ONLY if I had some

overdrive but everything disappeared once the tone was set clean. It could be frustrating

practicing in clean at first but trust me, the payoff is great. If you can do good legato in clean,

kick in some overdrive and watch your hands fly.

2.1 Tips 1. Experiment with different picks. I use a Jim Dunlop Jazztone 204 which helps me with the

picking part of this legato method as the pick just slides through the strings without dragging

like how some other picks would. I tend to dig hard while playing which can sound really

annoying so this pick helps in this aspect as it is anti-digging like how some bass players

would install a ramp on their basses to prevent digging too deep into the strings. I find this

pick to work well for rapid speed picking as well.

2. If there are many notes going on one string and you feel that the fretting hand is losing

momentum, pick! The same ‘rule’ applies just like if we are going on to another string, pick

twice if there are more than two notes going on that string.

3. A nicely set up guitar helps tremendously in reducing stress. Have the strings at a

comfortable height that plays and sounds good. Check the neck relief as well. Take the guitar

to a guitar tech if you’re not sure how to do it yourself.

Thank you for reading so far and I’d say everything until now is the core content of this book where

we went through comparisons between different methods, the concepts and benefits of the pick-

more method, preparation and practicing advice and tips. Moving on we will look at the ‘Ideas’

section where I share the ideas I use in my legato lines which could be of help to those who are

looking to build their own licks. If you already have your own killer licks, do read on as you might get

something out of it too.

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3 IDEAS Once we’ve done our homework on the most basic trills (fingers 1-2, 1-3, 1-4, 2-3, 2-4, 3-4) and

slurs (fingers 1-2-3, 1-2-4, 1-3-4), it’s time to expand our legato vocabulary. Let’s break up ideas and

licks. To me, a lick is a combination of small ideas. Hence, to be able to construct our own licks, we

need ideas. The following are ideas I use frequently that could be of help in building lines. The ideas

are highlighted in blue boxes. Subdivisions are not included here as we have to practice in

different subdivisions anyway. To simplify things, everything is in C major unless otherwise stated

but please apply these ideas in different keys and scales as well as at different degrees of

the scale.

3.1 Basic down and up-turns Probably the most important as we look at the basic ways of how we can turn a scale’s direction

instead of purely ascending and descending. I’ve come out with these terms: down-turn and up-turn

where a down-turn works to change a scale’s direction from ascending to descending and

vice versa. We take a 3-notes-per-string C major scale as shown below as a template and look at

how we can implement some ideas to expand our phrasing using this scale:

Figure 9: 3-notes-per-string C major scale template.

Here are some common ways of doing turns:

Figure 10: Down-turns (ascending to descending).

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Figure 11: Up-turns (descending to ascending).

By mixing turns with our original scale, we can come out with something like this:

Figure 12: A lick made up of turns within a C major scale.

There is much to play just by messing with the turns alone!

3.2 The classic 6-note idea and its variations The following ideas evolve around a very common and classic 6-note idea. If you’ve played guitar

for some time you might have come across this:

Figure 13: Classic 6-note idea.

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This is one of the most used ideas around. The following lick is inspired by Steve Vai but he would

slur the whole thing without picking (remember Method 2?). For our purpose, pick the 1st two

notes on each string:

Figure 14: A descending lick made by repeating the same 6-note idea inspired by Steve Vai.

This idea is excellent for a down-turn too expanding it to a 7-note idea:

Figure 15: A down-turn (ascending to descending).

The following idea takes one note away from the original 6-note idea making it work very nicely

ascending. Here’s how it looks like if we run this up a scale:

Figure 16: Ascending 5-note idea.

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As we mix these ideas up:

Figure 17: A mix-up featuring variations of the classic 6-note idea.

Figure 18: Another mix-up of ideas.

Try creating your own ideas by adding or subtracting notes from the original 6-note idea.

3.3 1-note per string By incorporating 1-note per string ideas we get some wider intervallic sounds. The 1-note-per-

string parts can be sweep picked or hybrid picked whichever suits.

Figure 19: A lick with 1-note-per-string ideas. This works well when played to a Cmaj7 chord.

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Figure 20: An ascending CmajAdd9 arppegio with 1-note-per-string ideas applied.

3.4 String skipping String skipping is excellent for wider intervallic sounds too.

Figure 21: Utilizing string skipping to create wider intervallic sounds.

3.5 Slides Slides are particularly useful in covering different areas of the fretboard.

Figure 22: Utilizing slides to change positions.

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3.6 Chromaticism What we’ve seen so far involve diatonic runs in C major. We can always add in some chromatic

notes in between to spice things up. Here’s an example (look out for 4 fingers per string):

Figure 23: Chromatic notes in between an otherwise diatonic line.

3.7 Side stepping Step stepping means to move the scale a half step up or down momentarily, moving away

from the key centre hence creating tension. The following shows how an Ebm7/D#m7 arpeggio is

used in an otherwise diatonic C major run:

Figure 24: Moving the key centre a half step away momentarily (side stepping).

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3.8 Fixed position runs It’s easy being carried away going around the fretboard up and down but some really cool things

happen without moving much too. Here’s a lick inspired by Shawn Lane from his song ‘Get You Back’.

See how the lick involves repeated up and down-turns:

Figure 25: Shawn Lane inspired lick involving repeated turns.

3.9 Moving idea I like taking an idea and moving it to different degrees of a scale. Here’s an example of how

an otherwise 6-note idea is extended to a 7-note idea by sliding up to different degrees of the scale:

Figure 26: Moving an idea up the scale.

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It doesn’t need to be diatonic all the time. Here’s moving an idea with the same fingering

chromatically up:

Figure 27: Moving the same idea up chromatically.

When it comes to moving ideas how can we not mention the following? The next two are classic 4-

note ideas played over different degrees of a scale and they sure train us on what to be picked

and slurred. Of course this can be expanded to 5 notes, 6 notes etc.:

Figure 28: Ascending classic 4-note idea.

Figure 29: Descending classic 4-note idea.

All the ideas shown here are more or less everything I do and I hope you’ve gotten something out of

them. Do not stop discovering and creating new ideas and licks!

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4 CLOSING WORDS Thank you for reading and that’s almost everything I know of the pick-more legato method. It’s

important to practice frequently on different subdivisions at different tempos in different scales. It

helps tremendously to practice with a metronome as it exposes our weaknesses with no mercy and

it’s always better to embarrass ourselves in front of a metronome than an audience. Make sure the

picked and slurred notes sound as even as possible. It is not just about speed because again, legato

sounds horrible when it’s not executed cleanly. It is also crucial to be able to play in different keys

using different scales as we don’t want to end up knowing how to play in C major only. Most

importantly, do not stop discovering and creating new ideas.

I hope you’ve gained something useful from this book. If not, please let me know how I can make it

better. For feedback and anything else (lessons, gigs, collaborations etc.), do contact me at

justinliew@justinliewmusic.com and of course give my website justinliewmusic.com a visit too!

4.1 Recommended legato listening 1. Brett Garsed

2. Allan Holdsworth

3. Tim Miller

4. Tom Quayle

5. Allen Hinds