If you are asking yourself this question, then I’ve got a few answers for you to help.
Lots of guitar players when they hear their favourite guitar players do phrasing, wonder how they make it sound so great. And besides the obvious answer of practise. There are a few core fundamentals you can practise on to make sure your vibratos consistently sound great. And you can use these fundamentals to adapt vibratos to create your own style and use it in your soloing.
This article is for you if you already know how to do a vibrato and can do it with the right technique pretty easily. This applies both for vibratos that you do bending the string and also for slide vibratos too.
1. Pitch
One of the most important things about the vibrato is the pitch variance going back and forth.
You want to be check that each time your vibrato goes up to a certain pitch. Whether you’ve picked half a tone or a full tone. That it is consistently hitting that higher note.
Same goes for when you are moving your string back down to the original pitch, it needs to be consistent every time.
2. Speed
Another thing that’s very important is the speed of your vibrato. Whether you want to keep the same speed through out, have it slow down or speed up. You want to at least make sure whatever it is. It makes sense. If some of the bends are slow and some are fast, then it can sound very inconsistent.
Another aspect of speed is whether your vibrato speed works with the music that you are playing in. You want to make sure it’s congruent and works melodically. Vibratos are here to help you express the emotion of the piece. So try to think about how the melody part would sound if you sang it, and then practise mimicking that in your guitar playing too.
3. Volume
Your vibratos should have a good tone that lasts. You don’t want it to dye out or go quiet too early, and if it does, you can repick the string. But you want to practise this so it sounds good when you do it.
4. Sound
How does the overall vibrato sound to you. Maybe it doesn’t quite sound like your favourite guitar player yet. But with practise, soon you will be able to apply these fundamentals and structure of your vibratos to actual solos. And when you are replicating your favourite guitar players vibratos. Think about how they are altering their vibratos based on the categories we’ve listed above too.
With all vibratos and bends, you want to practise this slowly, 5 minutes a day for a period of 3 months minimum to see your vibratos transform and no longer be out of tune and inconsistent.
About author:
Guitar Tuition East London offers London guitar lessons for beginner guitar players all the way to advanced professional guitar lessons. Including many singer song writers and professional musicians. Their focus is on students having fun and enjoying the process of learning, so that they get lots of progress on the guitar for years to come.