Lydian Augmented Legato Lesson

Lydian Augmented Legato

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  • Lesson
  • My notes

  • A huge and warm welcome to everybody for stopping by here for my lesson!

    The topic is the legato-technique as Allan Holdsworth introduced it.

    The example I took is once again from my solo of "Religious War", I promise to everybody this is the last example from this song :)

    The biggest issue here is trying to focus on Hammer-Ons only and leave out all the Pull-Offs during your legato sequences.
    To approach this technique you need to start up with small legato passages the way you might already know them and try to develop the hammer-on technique on the descending parts of each lick.

    Here I suggest using only small 3-notes per string sections on a very low speed in the beginning. Also it might help you to use here only the Bridge Pick-Up on your guitar as this one has way more sensibility for your attack and you might also turn up the Gain a little.

    Once you succeed with three notes per string sections you might try the 4-notes per string ideas from my passage. But notice here it's very important to be warmed up well as these stretches might cause some problems with your tendons.
    Try to avoid too big movements of your left hand fingers!

    Please notice that the last part wich includes right hand tapping is not only based on hammer ons anymore. Here I leave this "Holdsworthian" Legato Concept and just go for regular combination of Hammer-Ons and Pull-Offs plus tapping together.

    The tonal material which I am using here is all based on the Melodic Minor-Scale and it's modes. Particular I am using it in two keys which are D-Lydian Augmented and F-Lydian Augmented.

    The biggest advice here is to check out the parent scale of these modes. As we know Lydian Augmented is the 3rd mode in the Melodic Minor scale. So it needs 3 semitones back in the Melodic Minor scale: D going to B / and F going to D.
    Following that D-Lydian Augmented is the same material as B-Melodic Minor simply started on D while F-Lydian Augmented is the same material as D-Melodic Minor started on F.

    Don't forget that this just scratches the surface of all the possibilities and the required abilities to play these modes.
    After doing this first step of Melodic Minor relation you still need to make the biggest step of really consider it as an own mode and play it all over the fretboard and make it sound like D is your root on D-Lydian Augmented. So it's not just playing B-Melodic Minor and of course the same thing is valid for F-Lydian Augmented.

    I hope I could manage to arouse your curiosity for this different legato approach same as using the Melodic Minor Modes for creating some kind of outside sounding tension on your playing which you might start to explore now and develop your own playing by that.

    The Chords:

    Dmaj7/9 / Fmaj7/9 /
    F#5 / F5 /


    Gear: Ibanez RG550/ENGL Ironball 606/Grossman IsolationCab/Mic Shure SM57

    Tuning: Standard E-A-D-G-B-E

    Tempo: 157 bpm

    Time signature: 4/4
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