Finger Gym 6: Three Steps to Super Lead Legato Speed

This is probably the hardest thing in all of Level 6, and it's deliberately the first lesson so you have the longest possible time to practise it. It's also what every finger gym exercise from the previous levels has been building towards.

These three cycling licks are the style of legato playing you hear from Angus Young, Slash, Steve Vai and Joe Satriani (check out my interview with him here). The first lick comes straight out of Whole Lotta Rosie. Master the pattern, cycle it, and you'll be playing genuinely fast lead lines while picking almost nothing at all.

If you feel the need to go back to previous finger gyms it's always worth it.

• Finger Gym 1 - Two Finger Hammer-On Combinations

• Finger Gym 2 - Finger Flick-off Combinations

• Finger Gym 3 - 2 Finger Flick Off / Pull Off Focus

• Finger Gym 4 - X Up the Fretboard Warmup

• Finger Gym 5 - 3 Finger Combinations

What you will learn:

• The first cycling lick — pick, flick off, flick off — and why one pick stroke per cycle is all you need

• The new hand position: coming into the neck like a string bend, not the vertical placement you've used before

• Lick two: adding a hammer-on and flick-off combo for a longer cycling pattern

• Lick three: the Slash-inspired line with a harmonic minor vibe

• How to build speed gradually — and exactly what to work on if you're not ready for this yet

The First Cycling Lick

The pattern is simple to describe: pick the eighth fret, flick off to the seventh, flick off to the fifth, and repeat. That's it — pick, flick, flick, cycled in triplets: one-two-three, one-two-three. Because you're only picking the first note of each cycle, the speed comes almost entirely from your fretting hand. The same pattern works across the thinnest three strings, and it lives in a hybrid of the Dorian mode and the blues scale, which means you can move it all over the fretboard. Get it clean and even on one string first, matching the rhythm in the tab, before you start cycling it or moving it down a string.

The New Hand Position

This is the biggest technical change from the finger gym work you've done before. Previous levels drilled vertical finger placement — fingers pressing straight down. Here, we come into the neck like you're doing a string bend: index finger retracted and wrapped around, thumb over the back around the sixth fret, middle and ring fingers down on an angle. All the fingers are down when you pick the first note, and then they flick off one at a time. This angled position is what lets these licks flow into chords and string bends in real playing. Use your thumb to mute the thicker strings, and let the index finger touch string one so nothing rings out that shouldn't.

Lick Two: Adding The Hammer-On

The second lick takes the same idea and extends the cycle: seven, flick off to five, hammer on to seven, hammer on to eight, flick off to seven. The numbers matter less than the moves — hammer on, flick off, hammer on, hammer on, flick off. The trick that makes it work: every time a finger goes down, it stays down. That's what keeps the pattern smooth at speed. Work it on the thinnest string, then string two, then string three, finishing your lines on the A root note.

Lick Three: The Slash-Inspired Line

The final cycling lick starts on the middle finger and works the same frets — five, seven, eight — across the thinnest three strings in three different positions. It's heavily inspired by Slash, and one particular move in it gives the whole line a real harmonic minor vibe. This is the pattern family that kicks on to some of the great solos — including the trickier ending solo of Sweet Child o' Mine, one of the best solos of all time. You won't play that today, but this lick is how you get there. All three licks work beautifully over any blues in A.

Building Speed Gradually

Keep the gain low while you practise — don't let a heavy sound do the work for you. If you can't manage the second two licks yet, just focus on the first one. If the first one isn't happening at all, that's your signal to go back to the finger gym exercises that open the previous levels and build up from there. This is a long-game skill: maybe not today, maybe not right away, but something you build on. Once the first lick cycles cleanly, the rest of this level will give you plenty of places to show off your new shredding skills.