Vibrato

Lesson Goals:

♦ Understand the concept of vibrato
♦ Learn the two technique methods to perform vibrato
♦ Practice playing vibrato

 

Any time you have listened to a professional singer you may have noticed that when they sing a sustained note, they will add a little "trill" or flutter to the end of the note. This trill is known as vibrato.

Vibrato is produced by slightly altering the pitch of a note in a pulsating fashion. With singers this is often a natural occurrence, something they do without even thinking about it.

On the guitar, vibrato is a skill we can learn and apply to our lead playing and soloing.

Vibrato can be applied to a note, or notes, on the guitar in varying ways to produce varying effects. There are fast vibratos, medium vibratos and slow deliberate vibratos.

There are no hard fast rules when it comes to vibrato, every guitarist interprets vibrato in their own way according to their own style of playing.

On the guitar, the vibrato effect can be produced in several ways. One way is with the use of a "whammy" bar, which is a metal bar attached to a floating bridge on an electric guitar. Another way is by the action and movement of the hand on the fretboard.

In today's lesson we will cover the latter method.

There are basically two ways to produce the vibrato effect on guitar with hand action and movement.

One way is to play a note, and "vibrate" the hand to an extent where vibrato occurs. This is not always the most widely used method but some guitarists learn to master playing notes with vibrato in this way.

The other way to produce vibrato with hand action is to use the fingers to vibrate the string. By gently moving the string in a subtle up and down vibrating motion, the note experiences a mild fluctuation in pitch resulting in the vibrato effect.

This method involves the fingers and wrist. When the finger is in placed on a note and you want to do a vibrato effect, move the finger in a slight up and down motion by rotating the wrist. The wrist is where the leverage and control comes from.

Look at the TAB below.

In the example above, the first measure illustrates a note that is simply played with no vibrato. In the second measure there is a symbol above the note. That "twisty" symbol indicates to do a vibrato on that note.

To compare the two, start by playing the note on the 5th fret of the 2nd string with the 1st finger. Just play the note and let it sustain.

Now play the same note again, but this time apply vibrato to it while it sustains......Hear the difference?

 

 

Now look at the next TAB below.

This is a classic B.B. King style lick using a pull-off. We have done this one before but now try it using vibrato at the end.

 

 

 

Look at the next TAB.

This lick starts with a slide from the 7th fret to the 9th fret on the 3rd string, followed by two single notes, then there is a hammer-on and you will apply vibrato to the final note on the 10th fret of the 2nd string.

Keep in mind that most TAB's do not have notation for vibrato. It is largely understood that vibrato is very much up the interpretation of the guitarist.

 

Next time you listen to your favorite guitar player, pay close attention to how they use vibrato in their solos. Vibrato is part of your "guitar personality", it's different for everyone. Like snowflakes, there are no two alike.

Some guitarists are caught up in speed, wanting to play everything as fast as possible. As a result, if they use vibrato, it is also done fast. High speed vibrato can have a negative impact on the ear and leave the listener unsatisfied.

Then on the other hand there are players like B.B. King that know instinctively how to play a slow, deliberate and controlled vibrato. The kind that squeezes every last bit of emotion out of a note. It is players like B.B who can say more with two notes than most others do in a lifetime!

If you are wondering which category you want to fit in, you will go much further in the latter. There is a place for speed, but constantly playing robotic fast licks on the guitar is not necessarily playing the guitar.

Spend some time on developing your vibrato. It can feel a little awkward at first, but will be well worth your time in terms of "speaking with your own voice" on the guitar!