Developing delicious, lyrical vibrato.

mburekenge · January 2017

it seems to me that the best players have really expressive vibrato, and I really want to focus on developing mine in this direction.

can anyone point me in the direction of some good exercises or techniques they used to develop their vibrato?

Gassage · January 2017

Listen to Kossoff, May, Gilmour, Bonamassa.

Repeat to fade.

A good trick is to think of the finger vibe as rubbing a spot off the neck of the guitar with your finger in a circular motion.

Gassage · January 2017

And, if you use a trem equipped guitar, learn to bend and apply vibrato on the bend and peak, and use the trem bar to add more as you release the bend down. It's a very neat trick.

mburekenge · January 2017

@Gassage thanks man, I'm already trying to emulate guys with touch that I love, including some that you mention. The old fashioned way - playing along until I cant hear the difference.

by the way, each time I see your sig it makes me chuckle.. every time! killer.

guitarfishbay · January 2017

Also consider guitar setup, it is much easier to control vibrato if the string tension is moderate to low-ish. When it is higher strength becomes a factor and that will make controlling it more difficult.

Gassage · January 2017

mburekenge said:

@Gassage thanks man, I'm already trying to emulate guys with touch that I love, including some that you mention. The old fashioned way - playing along until I cant hear the difference.

by the way, each time I see your sig it makes me chuckle.. every time! killer.

@mburekenge EDITED- wrong video.
Watch this for inspiration.

Basically Satch takes the first part of the solo, utterly technically kills it, slam dunk.
Vai takes second- restrained and wonderfully tasteful (for him).
Brian May takes the part of last solo- blows both into the ocean by a huge distance.... with feel and phrasing.

(memorable also for the backing singer oversinging in a masterful way.)

Roland · January 2017

@Gassage still no video

ChrisMusic · January 2017

Take a look at the videos posted in this old thread, there is some good stuff there, HTH

http://thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/9453/bends-and-vibrato-how-do-you-do-them#latest

mburekenge · January 2017

@ChrisMusic thanks a lot.

viz · January 2017

The best way to develop good vibrato in my opinion is firstly to know how you want it to sound, and why you want it to sound like that. Generic warble applied irrespective of context can be pretty revolting.

The best way to make sure your vibrato is applied judiciously is literally to sing what you want to hear, or at the very least have it in your mind's ear. But singing is the best, because it is most likely to be the most natural and give the best effect.

For example, holding a long note steady then warming it at the end with a slow, controlled, restrained vibrato gives a beautiful effect, but is quite difficult for guitarists to develop from scratch without knowing the sound beforehand.

Once you know exactly what you want to hear, and if you can listen carefully to the sound your guitar is making, you should be able to close the gap.

octatonic · January 2017

+1 ^^^

I also practiced note values with vibrato- quarter notes, triplets, half notes, whole notes- you'll never need more note values than that.

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Developing delicious, lyrical vibrato.

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