SPEED UP YOUR BLUES! With flashy legato fretting
Always wanted to fly around the neck like your blues-rock heroes? Well, now you can get the ‘wow factor’ into your solos with Andy Saphir‘ s 10 essential legato exercises and all-star legato speed jam.
Hendrix, Clapton, Page, Gary Moore, Larry Carlton and Philip Sayce all use hammer-ons, pull-offs, bends and slides to make their playing sound slick, smooth and speedy. You can too!
Most guitarists have fantasised about being like their heroes; taking centre stage before a crowd of thousands and launching into a fret-melting solo, thereby cementing themselves forever into the hearts of generations of guitar players. Well, if this is you (it certainly is me), working on your technique is essential if we are to develop the speed and fluidity necessary to play similar types of flashy lines.
Now we all know that good guitar playing isn’t measured simply by how many notes can be crammed into a second (although some would seem to think it is); and what makes a great solo can be largely subjective, creating many a healthy argument among us guitarists.
However, I think most would agree that a great combination of musicality and technical skill is needed if we are to have the tools to be able to combine tasteful melodic playing with the ‘now it’s time to blow your socks off’ type of flashy lick; the type of lick that’s so intrinsic to all the great blues-rock players.
It’s this ‘flash’ element of blues-rock guitar that is the focus of this lesson. Assuming that the word ‘flash’ is synonymous with rapid-fire licks and lines, then many of these have historically been based on the use of legato techniques. As the musical definition of legato refers to ‘smooth articulation between notes’, this approach can be translated into guitar playing by the use of hammer-ons, pull-offs, string bending and slides. Players like Allan Holdsworth, or GT friends Allen Hinds and Brett Garsed, have taken this idea to its extreme, bringing us stunning jazzfusion style solos that can make the hairs on the back of our necks stand to attention.
In blues-rock too, many guitarists have employed a range of these techniques to produce a wide variety of different sounding phrases. These also lend themselves to faster, more fluid lines due to the fretting hand being the one that does most of the hard work.
So, with this in mind I have created a huge 72-bar solo in the key of A, split into six separate 12-bar blues solos. It’s my take on a blues-rock ‘mega jam’ in the style of six iconic and amazing players, past and present: Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Gary Moore, Phillip Sayce and Scott Henderson. In each section I have done my best to highlight facets of their style of legato, imagining the kind of things they might play over their allotted 12 bars. There are additionally 10 exercises that feature various legato approaches to help develop your technique and ideas. The solos and exercises are predominantly based around the A Minor Pentatonic scale (A-C-D-E-G) but sometimes
Eb- feature notes from A Blues (A-C-D- E-G), A Major Pentatonic (A-B-C#-E-F#), A Mixolydian mode (A-B-C#-D-E-F#-G), A Dorian mode (A-B-C-D-E-F#-G), plus a few rather nice ‘outside’ tonalities too.
As some of the licks in the solo and exercises are quite intense, it’s vitally important to warm up first and take them very slowly to begin with, gradually working up your stamina as your technique develops. If your muscles get tired, stop and take a break. Don’t overdo it and hurt yourself!
Learning licks from other players can act as a ‘springboard’ for developing your own vocabulary and technique too. All the greats have done it, but as every player has a unique style and approach, we can do this without us all sounding the same. Time to get flashy!
AS SOME OF THE LICKS IN THE SOLO ARE QUITE INTENSE, IT’S VITAL TO WARM UP FIRST AND TAKE THEM VERY SLOWLY TO BEGIN WITH
We have a range of players here, from relatively clean-toned soloists like Hendrix , Clapton and Page, to much more distortion based players such as Henderson, Moore and Sayce. Try using the above settings for your Hendrix, Clapton and Page licks then jump on a drive pedal (and maybe change pickup) for Henderson, Sayce and Moore. Add reverb and delay to taste.