Step 1: Legato

Section 1:

The first and most important aspect of fusion style legato playing is the technique we
employ in the right hand. The most noticeable aspect is the smooth, almost synth like
sound of the lines, which can only be achieved through correctly accenting note groupings
(more of this in step 3) whilst using a soft touch hybrid picking technique in the right hand.
This is essential to achieve smooth transition between strings and correctly accent the
notes we want to emphasise in our phrasing. It is mainly achieved through using a
combination of the pick, hammer ons/pull off’s and second and third finger hybrid picking.
This will be explained clearly in the accompanying video, but it is essential to apply this to
each of the following steps as it greatly enhances that fluid fusion legato sound.

Section 2

Arpeggios:

This section will require you to visualise the fretboard in a new way when playing legato
lines, no more three-note-per-string speed picking patterns. We’ll begin by looking at the
major scale and mapping an arpeggio to each note degree. We’ll use G major as that’s a
common scale in rock guitar, so can make a great starting point. Rather than mapping the
scale across each string horizontally, we’re going to build an arpeggio starting from each of
the seven notes. To recap, if you don’t already know, chords built from the major scale use
the following pattern: major7, minor7, minor7, major7, dominant7, minor7, minor7b5. The
same is true of arpeggios. To view each note as an arpeggio we need to learn 4 new
patterns. One for the major 7 shapes, one for the minor 7 shapes, one for the dominant 7,
and one for the m7b5. With these four shapes under our fingers we can begin to visualise
legato lines around the major scale in a unique and interesting way by linking them
together. Below you will find the diagram for each of the arpeggios.

The first note builds into a major 7 arpeggio. In a major scale this pattern covers the 1st
and 4th notes:

Major 7 Arpeggio Diagram (1st Finger):

e—————————————————————————————————
B—————————————————————————————————
G—————————————————————————————————
D———————————6 ——7 ——6 ———————————————
A————————7 ———————————7 ————————————
E——5 ——9 —————————————————9 ——5 ——————

The second shape covers the 2nd, 3rd, and 6th notes of the major scale:
Minor 7 Arpeggio Diagram (1st Finger):

e——————————————————————————————————
B——————————————————————————————————
G——————————————————————————————————
D———————————5 ——7 ——5 ————————————————
A————————7 ———————————7 —————————————
E——5 ——8 —————————————————8 ——5 ———————

The third shape covers the 5th degree of the scale and uses a dominant 7 arpeggio:

Dominant 7 Arpeggio Diagram (1st Finger):

e——————————————————————————————————
B——————————————————————————————————
G——————————————————————————————————
D———————————5 ——7 ——5 ————————————————
A————————7 ———————————7 —————————————
E——5 ——9 —————————————————9 ——5 ———————

The fourth and final shape we need to learn covers the 7th note of the major scale and is a
half diminished arpeggio:

Diminished Arpeggio Diagram (1st Finger):

e——————————————————————————————————
B——————————————————————————————————
G——————————————————————————————————
D———————————5 ——7 ——5 ————————————————
A————————6 ———————————6 —————————————
E——5 ——8 —————————————————8 ——5 ———————

So now that you’ve learnt these 4 arpeggio shapes, we’ve began to form the foundation of
our legato runs as these are what will be linked together to create our runs. However it’s
not quite that simple as there are more to learn yet. The four shapes above are all used
starting with the first finger as a launching point, but what if when we are playing legato we
end a four note grouping on a different finger? To get around this we must also learn these
shapes using the second and fourth fingers as launching points. This is what they look
like:

Major 7 Arpeggio Diagram (2nd Finger):

e—————————————————————————————————
B—————————————————————————————————
G—————————————————————————————————
D———————————6 ——7 ——6 ———————————————
A—————4———7 ——————————7 ——4 —————————
E——5 ———————————————————————5——————
Minor 7 Arpeggio Diagram (2nd Finger):

e—————————————————————————————————
B—————————————————————————————————
G—————————————————————————————————
D———————————5 ——7 ——5 ———————————————
A—————3———7 ——————————7 ——3 —————————
E——5 ———————————————————————5——————

Dominant 7 Arpeggio Diagram (2nd Finger):

e—————————————————————————————————
B—————————————————————————————————
G—————————————————————————————————
D———————————5 ——7 ——5 ———————————————
A—————4———7 ——————————7 ——4 —————————
E——5 ———————————————————————5——————

Diminished 7 Arpeggio Diagram (2nd Finger):

e—————————————————————————————————
B—————————————————————————————————
G—————————————————————————————————
D———————————5 ——7 ——5 ———————————————
A—————3———6 ——————————6 ——3 —————————
E——5 ———————————————————————5——————

Major 7 Arpeggio Diagram (3rd Finger):

e—————————————————————————————————
B—————————————————————————————————
G————————————— 2——————————————————
D————————2—— 6 —————6—— 2————————————
A—————4—————————————————4 —————————
E——5 ———————————————————————5 ——————

Minor 7 Arpeggio Diagram (4th Finger):

e—————————————————————————————————
B—————————————————————————————————
G————————————— 2——————————————————
D————————2—— 5 —————5—— 2————————————
A—————3—————————————————3 —————————
E——5 ———————————————————————5 ——————
Dominant 7 Arpeggio Diagram (4th Finger):

e—————————————————————————————————
B—————————————————————————————————
G————————————— 2——————————————————
D————————2—— 5 —————5—— 2————————————
A—————4—————————————————4 —————————
E——5 ———————————————————————5 ——————

Diminished 7 Arpeggio Diagram (4th Finger):

e—————————————————————————————————
B—————————————————————————————————
G————————————— 2——————————————————
D————————1—— 5 —————5—— 1————————————
A—————3—————————————————3 —————————
E——5 ———————————————————————5 ——————

The next step after learning each shape is to begin linking them together in musical ways.
Fretboard knowledge at this point become helpful as knowing where each interval of the
scale is on the fretboard gives you a launching point into the correct arpeggio anywhere on
the neck of the guitar. Add all this together and you get a brand new, all encompassing
method for visualising the fretboard for legato runs in a unique and contemporary way,
adding a more musical and structured sound to your legato that is not available in the
three note per string methods.

Section 3:

Sub-Divisions:

The next step to achieving that fusion legato sound is to concentrate on the sub-divisions
of the notes your are playing. When playing three notes-per-string it is often a guitar
players instinctive approach to play in triplets, which makes sense right? Three notes in a
row, play a three note grouping pattern, job done. Well this style of legato requires a more
disciplined and practised approach.

The end goal is to play in a more uniform time over compositions with your legato
beginning and ending in a more rhythmic place, rather than just stopping anywhere your
fingers stop moving. So working on the knowledge that 90% of modern music is written in
4/4 time, counting our legato subdivisions in 4 note groupings is a good place to start.
Doing so ensures your lines sit ‘in the pocket’, or within the time signature of the song,
naturally starting and ending in musically relevant places.

To do this then we begin by VERY SLOWLY taking the arpeggios learned in Section 2 and
linking them together counting in 4’s rather than triplets. It is super important to do this
with either a metronome or a drum machine, a drum machine being the better option of the
two if possible as it helps give more of a natural rhythmic feel, but ultimately it’s important
not to practise in free time too much as you may struggle to progress this way. This
shouldn’t be too taxing at first when going slowly as each arpeggios contains four notes so
this will help you to naturally create quarter note lines instead of three-note-per-string
triplet patterns.

Secondly it is also important to use the knowledge you have, as fusion playing is AN
EXTENSION of what you already know. So keep the box shapes you have learned, but
instead of playing in triplets, play through the shapes by counting each note grouping
again in 4 note patterns. This will create a problem that you will soon notice as the accent
of the ‘1’ in each new note grouping no longer starts on each new string. This is where
you must develop a new skill set in order to overcome this and create that smooth
effortless legato feel.

Again begin by playing slowly and with a drum machine, and by sticking with the right hand
technique introduced in section 1, go through each box shape from the low E to the high E
string ensuring that the accent is only placed on each ‘1’ beat. A trick is to play each
shape ascending and descending as this will place the accent on different fingers each
time instead of getting used to only having it fall on the first finger each time. This is
important to develop the independence into each finger placement so that when a line
requires us to start a 4 note pattern beginning with for instance our fourth finger, we
shouldn’t find this to be a problem.

Section 4:

Chromaticism:

The next key step to fusion legato is chromaticism. This is the key step to instantly getting
that fusion sound injected into your playing. There are complex jazz theory aspects to
chromaticism, but for the purpose of this tutorial we are going to focus on how we can use
it to give us our distinct sound in a practical and applicable manner. Chromaticism itself is
a relatively simple complex, you basically play groups of consecutive notes in a row, but
the trick is getting it to sound musical whilst playing in different keys.

What to play:

There are two different areas to consider when looking at fusion based chromaticism, the
first were going to look at is which notes to play. Again at this point we’re going to bring in
the knowledge of your three notes per string box shapes that you have and apply
chromaticism to them. We do this by, simply putting it, filling in the blanks. As you stretch
your fingers out to cover a major scale, you will notice that on the low E string there is a
one fret gap between your 1st, 2nd and 4th fingers. The trick here is to simply play the
note between your 2nd and 4th fingers giving the line an instantly chromatic sound. String
5 has the same shape so you should apply the same pattern, string 4 of a major scale box
shape has a gap between the 2nd and 4th fingers, and again you should simply include
this note when playing from top to bottom. Strings 2 and 1 have a gap between the 1st
and 3rd fingers which should be played when trying to create a chromatic line. Practise
this by playing through the box shape from top to bottom keeping the accents on the ‘1’
note, which if done correctly will naturally alternate fingers as you repeat the scale. This
will be a demand on your left hand at first and can feel really unnatural to play a 4 note per
string legato shape like this, but if you’ve followed the finger exercises from the beginning
of the course you should be able to approach this new technique with ease. Again,
practise slowly and with a drum machine.
When to play it:

The second thing to consider with chromaticism is WHEN to play it. Outside playing of this
nature (so named as we are playing notes from outside the relevant scale) can sound
incorrect or just plain bad if executed incorrectly. The trick is to add these outside notes in
bar 4 of each 4 bar count (assuming we’re playing over a composition in 4/4). Another
way to think of it is that wherever a drummer may naturally play a drum fill, this would be a
good place to play chromatically. This is because fills are usually played on bars 2 or 4 in
a 4/4 time signature and feels natural to bring us back round to the parent key in the
following bars. Therefore playing chromatically at these points will always sound
applicable and interesting. Controlling your phrasing in this manner takes time and
practise. There are no shortcuts but playing with an awareness like this will help your
overall playing not just in legato but also in timing generally and phrasing feel, so don’t
give up on it.

To help with this practise I have included a ‘timing feel’ backing track, which is designed to
accentuate the bars in which chromaticism is best used. So play over the track, and when
the drums drop out, use that time to play chromatically, landing on a chord tone when the
rhythm comes back in. This will help you to develop a natural time feel for this particular
technique.