www.freeguitarlessononline.co.uk Legato Lesson – How to play guitar fast lesson 1, very simple legato excersises to increase finger strength , dexterity and speed. How to play guitar fast part 1. LEGATO In musical notation the Italian word legato (literally meaning “tied together”) indicates that musical notes are played smoothly. A great way of playing fast is to learn to play legatoe style ‘al la sattriani’, basically you play through and arround scales, Here are three shapes that i find a very useful for learning legato and increasing finger strength and dexterity. Bascially When accending the shapes are picked once then the proceeding notes are hammered, then when decending the shapes are picked once the the proceeding notes are pulled off.It helps to learn to start with upwards picking and downwards picking so to keep everything balanced and equal in your picking technique.Its a very good idea to use a metronome when practising this technique as this will make for a very fluent sound.When played at high speed it can sound like the notes are ‘ bubbling’ and runs will sound far smoother sounding than when played staccatto where every note is picked.This technique requires a lot of patience to get up to speed and should be practised daily to keep fully fluent. Shape 1 frets 5-6-8 Shape 2 frets 5-7-8 Shape 3 frets 5-7-9