Legato Isn't Cheating — It's a Weapon
Technique · 7 min read ·
Every shred player has heard it. "Oh, you play legato? That's cheating — you're just not picking the notes." Usually said by someone who can tremolo pick one string really fast and thinks that makes them a guitar player.
Let me clear this up: legato isn't easier than picking. It's different. And when it's done right, it's one of the most expressive, powerful techniques you can have.
The Volume Problem
The #1 issue with most players' legato: the hammered and pulled notes are way quieter than the picked notes. You pick the first note of each string — BANG — then the hammer-ons taper off into nothing. It sounds like a picked note followed by three ghost notes.
Good legato means every note has the same perceived volume, whether it's picked, hammered, or pulled.
For hammer-ons: You need to hammer the finger down like you're trying to push it through the fretboard. Not gently placing it — slamming it. The fret, not your pick, is what creates the note. The harder and faster the finger drops, the louder the note rings.
Think of it like a piano hammer. It doesn't gently touch the string — it strikes it. Your fingertip needs that same snap.
For pull-offs: This is where most players go wrong. A pull-off is not "lifting your finger off the string." A pull-off is a downward pluck with your fretting finger. You're pulling the string toward the floor as you release it. The string vibrates because you plucked it with your fretting hand — not because you removed a finger.
Once you treat pull-offs as plucks, your legato volume problems disappear almost overnight.
The Pinky Conspiracy
Everyone's ring finger is reasonably strong. Everyone's pinky is a disaster.
Here's the test: play a simple one-string legato pattern using only your index and pinky (frets 5 and 8, for example). Hammer on with the pinky. Is it as loud as the index finger picking the note? No? That's normal. But it needs to be.
Pinky training plan:
- Trills: Index to pinky, 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off. Do 5 sets. Your pinky will shake. That's fine — it's getting stronger.
- Isolated hammers: Hammer the pinky onto the fret from about 1 inch above the string. No pick involved. Just the hammer. Make it audible. If you can hear it clearly without an amp, you're hitting hard enough.
- String skipping legato: Force the pinky to hammer on strings it's not used to, especially the wound strings where more force is needed.
Within 3-4 weeks of daily pinky work, the strength difference between your fingers flattens out dramatically.
Muting: The Legato Survival Skill
Legato with distortion is a completely different animal than legato on a clean channel. High gain amplifies every sympathetic vibration, every accidental string touch, every open string ring.
If your muting isn't airtight, your legato will sound like a mess of harmonics and noise.
Right hand muting: Rest your right palm lightly on the strings you're not playing. As your left hand moves to higher strings, the right hand follows, damping the lower strings.
Left hand muting: Your fretting fingers that aren't actively playing should be lightly touching adjacent strings to kill any sympathetic vibration. The index finger is especially useful as a muting bar across lower strings.
The test: Play your legato passage with heavy distortion. Now stop. If the noise rings out for more than a split second, your muting needs work. The silence between phrases should be dead silence — not a wash of harmonic noise.
Legato vs. Picking: Different Colors, Not Different Tiers
This is the mindset shift that matters: legato and picking are not on a hierarchy. They're different tonal colors.
- Picking gives you attack, precision, definition. Every note has a clear onset. It sounds aggressive, articulate, metallic.
- Legato gives you flow, smoothness, connection. Notes blend into each other like a vocalist sliding between pitches. It sounds liquid, vocal, organic.
The best shred players in the world use both, often in the same phrase. Picked arpeggios into legato runs. Legato ascending lines into picked descending sequences. The contrast between attack and flow is what makes a solo interesting.
Building Legato Speed
Legato speed develops differently from picking speed. With picking, you're limited by pick-string coordination. With legato, you're limited by finger strength and independence.
The strength-speed connection: You can't hammer fast if your fingers are weak. Speed in legato is a byproduct of strength. When a finger can produce a loud, clear hammer-on with minimal effort, it can do it repeatedly at high speed.
Progressive overload:
- Start with two-note trills at a comfortable speed. Time yourself — 15 seconds of clean trills.
- Add a third finger. Three-note patterns. Same drill.
- Add the pinky. Four-note patterns across one string.
- Multi-string: run the pattern across 2-3 strings, picking only the first note of each string.
- Gradually increase tempo. Track your NPS week over week.
The Hybrid Approach
My favorite practice method for legato: pick every note at slow speed, then gradually remove picks as you speed up. At 70 BPM, pick everything. At 90, pick only the first note of each beat. At 110, pick only the first note of each string change. By the time you're at your target tempo, you've naturally transitioned to full legato — but with the precision habits from the picked slow practice built in.
ShredForge's exercise builders let you create legato-specific drills with any combination of hammer-ons and pull-offs. The session builder chains them into focused legato workouts, and the Skill Tree tracks your legato NPS separately from your picking — because they're different skills that deserve their own progression.