Legato

I'm having a really hard time with the concept of playing notes in Legato instead of Staccato. Maybe it's just my poor dog paw limitations, but my pinky dog toe and index dog toe can't transition notes this way at all. They seem physically incapable of being in concert with one another. My instructor has been trying to help me with this for like 4 weeks now and I make no progress. I've used tons of exercises, stretches, etc., and it just doesn't get better.

Does anyone have any extreme, sure fire tricks to help my paw adapt? I should note that being a large dog, my paw is bigger than most human hands. It can be a bit tough. A good example of my problem is the line on Billie Jean. When I play, it sounds like disconnected notes instead of the proper line. I know it isn't a matter of playing faster because I can go pretty quick with the notes...but the gaps between are killing it, and I can't get my paw to work right.

Well, I'm not really sure what you're talking about, since staccato is usually the style people have trouble it...and Billie Jean is staccato. With short notes and pauses in between.

For getting nice legato transitions, I'd recommend trying to play without plucking the strings. Move across a scale, only use your fretting hand and you can't take of a finger from a previous fret until your next finger is on the following fret. You can play a chromatic scale, it doesn't matter. Just no plucking and no lifting fingers until another is down. If going slow, you should have 2 fingers fretting at some point between the transition.

Stryfer wrote:
For getting nice legato transitions, I'd recommend trying to play without plucking the strings. Move across a scale, only use your fretting hand and you can't take of a finger from a previous fret until your next finger is on the following fret. You can play a chromatic scale, it doesn't matter. Just no plucking and no lifting fingers until another is down. If going slow, you should have 2 fingers fretting at some point between the transition.

I recently spent a lot of chunks of practice time doing this...just moving up and down a string, or whatever, and it is starting to come together for me. I also had a trip to the vet, and found out that I have some tendon strain due to all my keyboarding at the computer for long stretches. Luckily it isn't too serious, and I just need to get a keyboard that will be easier on my left paw.

You'll get a very different tendon strain from this my doggy friend