Legato (l?g?to) is a musical direction where the notes that are played are smoothly connected together. This is the opposite of “staccato”, in which the notes are sharp and disconnected. With guitar legato, musical phrases are more played with pull-off and hammer-ons, instead of finger picking, which creates a more disconnected sound between notes. When first learning how to play legato lines on an electric guitar, the notes played will be close together and on the same string to keep the sound smooth and connected. However, as more skill is gained in the techniques of legato, more complex phrases can be played.
The Head (h??d) of an Amplifier refers to a stand-alone portion of a guitar amplifier setup, which contains the pre-amp and power amplifier sections, but not speakers. An electric guitar is plugged into the wood or metal-enclosed head, which in turn is plugged into the speaker cabinet. The head is responsible for the preamp stage of the guitar signal, which usually contains controls for gain and tone, which then feeds into the power amp stage, which is responsible for volume output to the speakers.
The head is usually placed above one or two stacked speaker cabinets. This configuration is referred to as a “half-stack” or “stack”, as opposed to a “combo” amplifier which contains the pre- and post-amp, including a speaker(s), within a single cabinet.
The Harmonic (harm??n?k) is a unique sound produced on the guitar by touching a string very lightly over certain frets with your left hand while your right hand plucks the strings. To allow harmonics to ring you must quickly removing your left hand as you pluck. Producing harmonics on the guitar string requires practice, as the finger pressure and timing must both be accurate.
The term harmonic is sometimes used equivalently with the term overtone, as both sounds are created when the guitar or other instrument produces multiple frequencies known as partials. The primary difference is that harmonics and overtones are counted slightly differently when you are determining where on the string to touch to create the sound you are looking for.
Guitar Effects (g?t??r ?f??kts) are devices used to enable a guitar player to alter the sound coming from the instrument. The traditional method of use is when a guitar is plugged into a guitar effect/s which is then plugged into an amplification source. Guitar effects receive a signal from the guitar and then alter the signal before it is sent onto an amplifier.
There are a variety of guitar effects that are available. Effect levels can be increased or decreased and are most often controlled with foot pedals. Effects are used in combination to form recognizable tones and these combos enable the creation of signature sounds. Some of the more common effects include distortion and fuzz boxes which exaggerate the vibratory levels of the strings resulting in a distorted sounds. Other effects include Flanger which adds a sweeping and revolving loop to the sound and Chorus which brightens the tone and multiplies the sound itself.
Fuzz (f??z) is one of the oldest and most iconic distortion devices available for the electric guitar. Creating fuzz tones involves boosting the amplitude of the sound waves from a guitar to the point that they are read as square waves on an oscilloscope. Soundwise, fuzz creates a buzzy, singing sustained sound with lots of overtones that still responds to a player’s picking dynamics.
Fuzz is a very common effect used in classic rock, but is still popular with contemporary players. In the past, fuzz was produced by slitting the speaker cones with a razor. However, fuzz tones are now available from a very wide menu of pedal, or stompbox choices.
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