Vibrato Options

[Ryan]

What did you do to develop such a great vibrato??

The answer im looking for is not Practice. I mean like did you just for hours before. Stick on one note with one finger. Doing slow, and then fast, small then wide vibratos?? Then did you switch to another finger??

Just tell me your story of how you developed such a great vibrato!! It would be very much appreciated. Im very interested in peoples vibratos for some reason

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[Marcus Lavendell]

Hey Ryan,

Thanks for your post! First I want to say that Vibrato is a very simple “technique”, and it’s fairly easy to understand what you need to do with your fingers. You don’t have to be very flexible or strong in your fingers, so I don’t think there should be a need to practice in the way you mentioned. To me It also sounds pretty boring to practice like that; one note, slow & fast, and then move on to the next finger...
The tricky thing is to find a suitable vibrato for the specific note you want to add it to. And I’m not sure if I can teach someone that, it has to come from your heart (soul or mind, or whatever it now comes from) . To find that suitable vibrato you have to experiment with each note, and this is the part that takes years to learn.

I remember reasoning with myself like this: “When I play that lick, and stop at this note. What vibrato should I use? Lets try Slow and Deep.... ok, that didn’t sound good to my ears. Lets try a Fast and Deep instead”. And so on.... I did that for each and every note on all the strings, and in all possible situations (coming from a slide, bend, tap, etc..). I didn’t find it boring though, because I always played to a backing track, or with other musicians. I also found that It’s possible to control the feel of the solo/song, simply by changing the vibrato (making it more intense), which got me even more motivated.

PS. I don’t recommend you to practice with a metronome. I’ve heard some scary examples of guys who did that, and they seem to use a very static vibrato on every note. I think it’s better and more fun to jam along with backing tracks instead, because that also gives you an idea of how your vibrato sounds in a “real musical situation”.

Hope this helps!


-Marcus

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[Andrew Cockburn]

Hey Marcus, on this subject - my Vibrato is ok, it mostly does the job, but one aspect I have trouble with is a bend up followed by a vibrato, specifically when bending the note up towards my head, not so much when I bend it down towards my feet. I think that particular sequence gives playing such an accomplished feel that I really want to master it but my efforts so far sound irregular and amateurish, much worse than my other vibrato types. Do you have any tips on this?

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[Ryan]

Hey Marcus, on this subject - my Vibrato is ok, it mostly does the job, but one aspect I have trouble with is a bend up followed by a vibrato, specifically when bending the note up towards my head, not so much when I bend it down towards my feet. I think that particular sequence gives playing such an accomplished feel that I really want to master it but my efforts so far sound irregular and amateurish, much worse than my other vibrato types. Do you have any tips on this?

Yes, this is a very tricky thing for me 2. I can get it up there. and then hold it so i can vibrato it. But then it sounds so weird. Like Im slowly going out of pitch, or tune (whichever you want to call it)

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[JVM]

I also get this. Someone else said it in another topic, they said it sounds "like a dying ghost" or something, I thought that matched it perfectly My normal vibrato is pretty good I think, its the bending that I have trouble with.

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[Marcus Lavendell]

Thanks for your posts - Andrew, Ryan and JVM.

I also think that It’s more difficult to add vibrato while bending, especially when bending the string up towards the head. Though I believe this primarily is more a matter about finger strength, rather than the actual vibrato itself.

As for tips;

1) Make sure to place your lefthand thumb at the upper side of the neck (kind of curved over the neck). I bet you’ll find that grip more solid.

2) Don’t press down the string too hard, you only need to press it hard enough that you don’t “drop” it. The harder you press it, the more tense you’ll be, and you’ll lose control over the string.

3) Work on finger exercises (GripMaster or similar) to strengthen the muscles.

4) If you bend the string with your ring finger – then of course it’s ok to place the index- and middle finger on the string as well, to support.

5) Use a lighter string guage

These are the things that I can think of right now, but I’ll add more as soon as I figure any out!


-Marcus

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[Ryan]

Thanks for your posts - Andrew, Ryan and JVM.

I also think that It’s more difficult to add vibrato while bending, especially when bending the string up towards the head. Though I believe this primarily is more a matter about finger strength, rather than the actual vibrato itself.

As for tips;

1) Make sure to place your lefthand thumb at the upper side of the neck (kind of curved over the neck). I bet you’ll find that grip more solid.

2) Don’t press down the string too hard, you only need to press it hard enough that you don’t “drop” it. The harder you press it, the more tense you’ll be, and you’ll lose control over the string.

3) Work on finger exercises (GripMaster or similar) to strengthen the muscles.

4) If you bend the string with your ring finger – then of course it’s ok to place the index- and middle finger on the string as well, to support.

5) Use a lighter string guage

These are the things that I can think of right now, but I’ll add more as soon as I figure any out!
-Marcus

Ill be sure to try that. Bending vibrato, adds a lot to someones playing!!

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[Marcus Lavendell]

Ill be sure to try that. Bending vibrato, adds a lot to someones playing!!

Cool! Let me know how it works

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[Otto]

I agree that vibrato is, the soul speaking


Just check this one out if you dont believe it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wsih9nUpq2U



(bah all newbies here like me have to use alot of smilies )

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[Andrew Cockburn]

Cool! Let me know how it works

Thanks Marcus - the one about not pressing too hard sounds like a good one to me - I bet if I chesked I would be really tense. I;ll give it a go

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[steve25]

I'm a little confused you say you can do a vibrato alright but when you bend and then apply vibrato it sounds different, isn't that what a vibrato is? Isn't it bending up and then applying a vibrato? Sorry for the month later post

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[Andrew Cockburn]

I'm a little confused you say you can do a vibrato alright but when you bend and then apply vibrato it sounds different, isn't that what a vibrato is? Isn't it bending up and then applying a vibrato? Sorry for the month later post

Applying vibrato to a normal unbent note means bending up a little and returning to that unbent position, several times a second - that's not too hard. Vibrato on a bent note means bending up a tone for instance, then to apply the vibrato, you bend up a little further and return to the bent position - this is a lot harder as you can;t just slacken of entirely or the note will bend down to the unbent note, you have to bend up a little further then unbend down to the note you originally bent to which takes a lot of practicr and coordination.

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[Ryan]

Applying vibrato to a normal unbent note means bending up a little and returning to that unbent position, several times a second - that's not too hard. Vibrato on a bent note means bending up a tone for instance, then to apply the vibrato, you bend up a little further and return to the bent position - this is a lot harder as you can;t just slacken of entirely or the note will bend down to the unbent note, you have to bend up a little further then unbend down to the note you originally bent to which takes a lot of practicr and coordination.

Pff, a lot of practice is an under-statement. I would say, nearly impossible to do. just kidding, but it does take a really long time with a lot of practice to get it right, and sounding like a real vibrato. Being able to control it, going from wide, to narrow. That makes it more difficult. AHAH Sometimes I want to blow my head off cus of it.

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[IDontWantThisUse...]

I think it's easier to get a good vibrato when the neck is thicker, as you then get a much better grip around it. I started thinking that when I bought a very slim-necked Ibanez - I had, as Marcus said, to put the thumb very far around the neck compared to what I had to do with a very thick-necked Stratcopy to get a good vibrato.

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