Guitar World “Last Licks” Video Lesson on Legato Licks by Martin Goulding
For the December 2012 edition of Guitar World magazine which features The Beatles on the front cover, I put together my back cover column “Last Licks” column, featuring five Legato runs. From the rapid-fire slurs of the 1970’s classic rock icons, to the birth of modern rock in the late 1970’s with players such as Eddie Van Halen and Randy Rhoads, to the mid/late 1980’s virtuosos Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Richie Kotzen, legato playing has become a popular technique in rock guitar playing. Characterised by a fast, smooth tone, it provides contrast to the picking-based techniques, and will help develop fretting hand strength, stamina and accuracy.
Set your fretting hand with the thumb in the middle of the neck, and dropped low with plenty of space underneath, the index finger set fairly flat so as to mute any un-played strings. Stretch and reach for the notes, keeping the hand still and shaking off any tension as it arises. Memorise by playing through slowly until comfortable before applying speed.
For the audio I used an Axe FX II set up with a Marshall Brit 800 Mod type sound (boost set off) with TS808 tubescreamer overdrive with the drive set to half and some medium room reverb (stereo delay from logic on mixdown) and pseudo double tracking (doubling the track and delaying one side/panned hard left and right), straight to an Apogee ensemble card into a Mac Pro running Logic. For Video, a Canon 60D and FCP X for editing. Guitar wise, i used my Ibanez J Custom JCRG-2 TB with EMG pick-ups. (see gear page). The supporting video goes into some detail breaking down the examples in a way that will be accessible for intermediate level players.
To check out the video please click here.
