The weather is turning colder now so we will have to take extra measures to keep those fingers warm !! Read on.. and no, I haven't made a mistake and posted in the wrong place...

Task 32: https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/legato-stamina/

Yes, that says Level 7 - but of course I don't want you to play it at the same tempo ! Instead I'd like you to use this as a legato study to build some more stamina and dexterity in that fretting hand and use a lower tempo backing track.. or even record it to a click or drum track if you like.

Also, I only ask you to learn up until 0:35 in this lesson. Those trills at the end are really cool but I think spending time on them may draw attention away from the rest of the piece. If you do want to do them then go for it, of course.. but you don't have to

Ok, so I've given you a bit of a tougher assignment this week but I know you can do it !! So, once you've done your morning exercise and you've eaten your rice and cleaned your bowl, dig in and enjoy !

Deadline is next Friday 7th September ! or I send the men around in the blacked out Mercedes...

This post has been edited by Ben Higgins: Aug 31 2012, 09:50 AM

That's really a tough one. I'm still struggling with last week lesson, mainly because of the legato part. So it's a good thing that we work on this again. But I'm really no-good with legato. I can't play it clean at 50% (80 bpm !). It's not fluid, nor even. And I miss notes when changing hand position... That's terrible !
OK, I go back to work, weeping won't help me anyway

That's true.. self pity is not rewarded in The Temple... but it may be punished !!

I wanted to share this. Here is what I can do so far, at 80bpm. I don't really want to push it faster, because it's still not clean and I'm fed up to learn things not right.
So I intend to stick with this tempo until it's quite clean and even. Unless you tell me otherwise, of course.
It's not a "Donut submission", just a "work in progress" checkpoint
See you !

http://soundcloud.com/grindguer/legato-stamina-click/s-icgzZ

For a weekly task this is quite challenging but the skill rewarded from it is a great incentive to try it out. I wish I had enough time this week to dedicate to this lesson!

Sounding good. It is a tough cookie isn't it ?

Ok, I'll bear your 'Non Donut' submission status in mind

This post has been edited by Ben Higgins: Sep 5 2012, 09:10 AM

Dead line already... I wish we could work on this one next week. Progress are coming so slow.
Here is what I can do at 80 bpm, and an attempt at 110 bpm. At 140 bpm, I panic
Salut !

http://soundcloud.com/grindguer/legato-stamina/s-BFHOw

http://soundcloud.com/grindguer/legato-stamina-1/s-tBFWS

That's not bad at all, Monsieur ! Well, maybe this will be a good one to keep working on in the background ?

Now, we all know what happens now don't we ? You've got a Donut... that makes 10...

Check this out... make your choices for the Tasks and let me know in a pm please ! )

https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...mp;#entry605620

Hi Guys

Tough Week on this task. Really tough. Does legato get easier? It's a tough technique. I know Legato is one of your babies and your amazing at this technique. I'd love to love it but it's not loving me. Very slow going.

http://soundcloud.com/zoomify/legato-stamina

Hey Grind what do you use to slow down the backing track? I have amazing slow downer on my iphone but I need something for my pc.

Hail Zoom ! Well this is not bad stuff, man... it sounds like it's hard work sustaining those notes at that speed and with that tone.. it's quite dry isn't it ? You did pretty well to keep the licks in time and you sounded quite in control for most of it.

I would say that it isn't a difficult technique to learn and play but it is very difficult to keep pushing forward with it when you're trying to learn it, if that makes sense ? I think the hardest part is to find the resilience to keep training the fingers and being patient with them. They will get there !

I'm interested to know if, looking back, you think you would have been able to play this ?

This post has been edited by Ben Higgins: Sep 7 2012, 02:02 PM

quote - (hard work sustaining those notes at that speed and with that tone.. it's quite dry isn't it ?)

I really need to spend some time on getting a decent tone. I do struggle with my set up a bit. I've got a few issues with pod farm it max's out my cpu and slows every thing down + I really need to understand more about how to get a good tone. Any tips?

quote (I'm interested to know if, looking back, you think you would have been able to play this ?)

I'm really happy with my progress this week. I really felt pushed on this one for sure. I remember doing your land of legato lesson awhile ago
which was really hard also but at least it got me started. If I hadn't of done that I don't think I could have done this. I think I'm a pretty slow learner on guitar but I feel I've come along way.

Congrats on #10 Grind!!

Take it easy on us brother.




Haha, join the club man. I have spent a lot of time working on legato and I feel like I'm going nowhere. Snails pace at the very best but I don't generally have a whole lot of time to practice and when I do work on legato I get frustrated and just stop and go work on the task of the week or one of the other lessons I'm working on.

I get more instant satisfaction out of that but I know I'll really have to bear down if I ever want to break through things like legato and fast AP stuff.

Hmm, I'm sorry, I don't have any experience with that sort of gear at all.... are you able to increase the gain at all without maxking out your cpu ? Just to give you some extra sustain..

Be confident my friend


I thought you would join us on this Task, as you said before you kind of hate the L word. The next assignment could be for you.


I use Audacity, which is a free software. Does the trick for me.
You did great on this one, man.