Slurs on every finger: classical guitar ligados
Ascending and descending slurs, ligados, between every pair of fretting fingers in the fifth position: picked, hammered on, picked, pulled off, on the high E, then the B, G and D strings. The pull-off plucks the string with the fretting finger, so this works both the strength of a hammer and the small snap of a pull, the way Tárrega's daily slur exercises do.
Opens in the player looped and counted in, with the metronome on, and speeds up 5 % every 2 loops to 80 bpm. No account or microphone needed.
- Goal tempo
- 80 bpm
- Starts at
- 48 bpm
- Length
- 4 bars, looped
- Tuning
- E standard
- Time
- 4/4
- Level
- Intermediate
- Plays with
- A metronome
How to play it
Hammer with the fingertip from above, right behind the fret; pull off sideways towards the floor so the finger plucks the string.
Each beat is four 16ths on one string: a note picked and the next hammered on, then that note picked and the first pulled off. The pairs are the first finger with the second, third and fourth, then the third with the fourth, with the first finger at the 5th fret, the second at the 6th, the third at the 7th and the fourth at the 8th. Bar 1 is on the high E string, bar 2 on the B, bar 3 on the G and bar 4 on the D.
For a hammer-on, the finger comes down from a little height onto the string, right behind the fret, with the fingertip. For a pull-off, the finger pulls slightly sideways, towards the floor, so it plucks the string rather than just lifting off it.
Keep the lower finger down on its fret while the higher one slurs: the note it frets has to sound when the higher finger pulls off.
Mistakes to watch for
- The slurred note quieter than the picked one. Hammer from higher and pull off with more snap.
- Lifting the lower finger before the pull-off, so the pulled note sounds as an open string.
- Squeezing with the thumb behind the neck. The strength comes from the fingers; the thumb just rests there.
A speed plan
The player starts at 60 % of the goal and plays each tempo twice before stepping up:
- 48
- 52
- 56
- 60
- 64
- 68
- 72
- 76
- 80
That's 16 loops and about 4 minutes before you're playing at 80 bpm. If it stops being clean on the way, stop the ramp there and loop that tempo until it is. With a microphone or an audio interface you can record while you play instead: Demiurg checks every loop and steps up only after two clean ones in a row, and back down after a poor one.
Questions
How fast should I play Slurs on every finger?
The goal is 80 bpm in 16th notes, which is 5.3 notes a second. Start wherever every note is clean: the player begins at 48 bpm. Signed in, you can set a goal of your own, slower or faster, on the Exercises page.
What are ligados?
The Spanish word for slurs: hammer-ons and pull-offs, notes sounded by the left hand alone. Tárrega wrote daily ligado exercises that guitarists still use, working every pair of fingers on every string.
How can I make my pull-offs louder?
Pull the string slightly downwards across the fingerboard before letting go, as if plucking it with the left-hand finger, and keep the finger behind it firmly in place so the note it frets rings out.
More classical exercises
All 12 classical exercises · Fretboard notes trainer · All 107 exercises