Legato like Lage Lund

[ginod]

Hey,

A while ago i bought an video lesson of Lage Lund who explained, that he only use Hammer Ons for legato Playing, even if he plays scales down. So he don't use pull offs at all, also when he play a higher note to a lower note on the same string he uses hammer ons.

I have tried this for myself, but it feels really weird and i don't get any good sound or loud tone out of the guitar. Did i understood him wrong? Does he really play hammer ons when playing scales down. Or is there any tipp for playing like this ?

Some people call this technique hammer ons from Nowhere. But i already thought this technique is only useful for playing the thicker strings.

[christianm77]

Yeah I think it makes more sense when you see the way Lage frets notes. He kind of looks like he's got bad technique in a way if that makes any sense, but there's absolute method in it. He jams those fingers down.

I like his thing about avoiding barres in arpeggios actually (he also avoids them in chords) - I practice that stuff a lot as I was a barre player. You do get more control of articulation and voice leading.

[Shadow of the Sun]

Didn't Allan Holdsworth do a similar thing? He never used pull-offs, instead using "reverse hammer-ons".

[christianm77]

Didn't Allan Holdsworth do a similar thing? He never used pull-offs, instead using "reverse hammer-ons".

Accounts differ. That’s what he said, but others (Allan experts) say not.

[Shadow of the Sun]

Accounts differ. That’s what he said, but others (Allan experts) say not.

Say what you want about Troy Grady, but I think that the one thing he's conclusively proven is that a lot of guitarists can be dead wrong about how they do some of the things they do.

[christianm77]

I don’t get the Grady hate. I suppose he’s obviously selling something in quite a commercial way, but his work on picking is groundbreaking imo

[Shadow of the Sun]

I don’t get the Grady hate. I suppose he’s obviously selling something in quite a commercial way, but his work on picking is groundbreaking imo

I love Troy and his work, but I understand that there are a lot of people who dislike his work. I can't afford to stay subscribed up indefinitely, but I recently bought a month's worth of subscription just to see his Molly Tuttle interview because Molly is a wizard.

[christianm77]

Well they are missing out. I took what I needed from him which is to be able to teach what I already do.

[christianm77]

Btw has he done Pat Martino yet?

[Shadow of the Sun]

Don't think so.

If I have any critique about Troy, it's that his player choice for his interviews can sometimes miss the mark. Molly Tuttle, David Grier, Joscho Stefan and all have been great, but some bigger name jazz cats would be great, too, like Pat Martino or George Benson (who Troy frustratingly refuses to cover, claiming he's just a downward pick slanter.)

[ginod]

thank you for your answers. Yes i think Allan Holdsworth used a smilier technique.

But for me, its unbelievable how they get enough sound out of the tone when they hammer the note from nowhere. Especially on the thinner strings. It doesn't make sense to me :-D

[christianm77]

thank you for your answers. Yes i think Allan Holdsworth used a smilier technique.

But for me, its unbelievable how they get enough sound out of the tone when they hammer the note from nowhere. Especially on the thinner strings. It doesn't make sense to me :-D

Well FWIW Lage doesn't hammer as many notes as Allan, and according to Tom Quayle who is a top banana legato player and would appear to know his shit, Allan used pull offs, just ones that didn't 'meow.' Anyway, Allan was pretty unique.

[Shadow of the Sun]

Well FWIW Lage doesn't hammer as many notes as Allan, and according to Tom Quayle who is a top banana legato player and would appear to know his shit, Allan used pull offs, just ones that didn't 'meow.' Anyway, Allan was pretty unique.

Yeah, when I hear "reverse hammer-ons" I think that either he hammered onto lower notes, like Lage does, or that he did do pull offs, but by just lifting his finger off the string rather than pulling down to pluck the string again than is more traditional.

[christianm77]

Yeah, when I hear "reverse hammer-ons" I think that either he hammered onto lower notes, like Lage does, or that he did do pull offs, but by just lifting his finger off the string rather than pulling down to pluck the string again than is more traditional.

The exercise he gives in the video - mute strings and fret the notes so you can hear each one without picking - is key.

[Melodic Dreamer]

Yeah, when I hear "reverse hammer-ons" I think that either he hammered onto lower notes, like Lage does, or that he did do pull offs, but by just lifting his finger off the string rather than pulling down to pluck the string again than is more traditional.

Yes, this is it. This is exactly what I do. I got it from watching Holdsworth many years ago.

[Jonah]

I like his thing about avoiding barres in arpeggios actually (he also avoids them in chords) - I practice that stuff a lot as I was a barre player. You do get more control of articulation and voice leading.

aha... and then as next level you come back to using barres just with more control of articulation and voice leading)))

[eh6794-2.0]

I have the same Lage videos. Listen to the string noise when he plays on those videos; he is very physical (slap, slap slap). I noticed the same sound when he played in the old instructional video with the Jim Hall guitar. When he plays live you don't notice it because the amp is turned up.

He has a few videos with Bryn Roberts where he has the guitar mic'd up and you can, again, hear the noise (but it still sounds good).