Guitar Slur Exercises
What is a Slur?
A slur is a musical phrase or melody that is connected by various techniques including slides, hammer-ons and bends. In a slur, the first note is attack ed and then the rest of the notes are played without striking again. Think of it as a single note which is manipulated into other notes, rather than a series of individual notes. In vocal music, a slur is sometimes called a melisma.
Note: a slur is a kind of legato, and the two concepts are closely related. The difference is that, on the guitar, the first note of a slur is articulated and the remaining notes are not re-articulated.
Slur Example
Consider the following lick:
The notation shows that the notes are “tied together”. This could mean that the first note of each group will be picked, and the rest will be played somehow with only the fret hand, or it could just mean to take care to let each note have its full rhythmic value. The tablature on the bottom shows one possible interpretation of this melody, using hammer-ons, pull-offs, and slides.
Slur Exercises
- See how many melody notes you can play with one strike of the pick, without re-articulating them.
- Improvise using as many slurs as possible per note, no accompaniment.
