Slurs

Explanations of slur technique, known also as ligado, in guitar methods tend to be limited. This chapter looks at what Matteo Carcassi and Ferdinando Carulli called “vibration” or “´écho” slurs, which allow players to keep slurs aligned with strong and weak beats. Other composers, such as Felix Horetsky and Mauro Giuliani, indicated slurs that occur across beats as left-hand fingers slur all notes on a string within a position, regardless of the metric divisions. Music in this chapter explores both of these idiomatic techniques. The chapter concludes with an in-depth look at advanced slur technique by examining the relationship between where the left-hand fingertip contacts the string and the path the left-hand finger must take after the slur. Included are original diagrams and original exercises.