lead guitar techniques
Vibrato
Vibrato is one of the most important techniques for guitarists to master. Technically, vibrato is a series of tiny bends that fluctuate, or raise and return, the pitch of a note. To the listener, vibrato gives your playing a “vocal” quality that makes it more “human” and less mechanical sounding.
Vibrato
Vibrato is accomplished by picking a note and then using your fretting hand finger to “wiggle” or bend the string up and down.
Wide Vibrato
There are varying degrees of vibrato, just like bends. Wide vibrato uses large bends to change the pitch of a note by a larger degree. Sometimes you may want to use a wide vibrato and sometimes you may want a very subtle vibrato. Sometimes you might want something in between.
The best way to learn about vibrato is to listen to singers. Notice when they sustain (hold out) a note, they often start the note with no vibrato and then add vibrato near the end of the note. This method works well for guitar playing also. You will usually only add vibrato to notes you that are holding for more than a single beat. Vibrato doesn’t work well on fast notes because there usually is not enough time to employ the effect.
Play the following example and add vibrato to the whole notes. Notice that it starts with wide vibrato (large up and down bending motion) and then switches to normal vibrato.
Vibrato Example
Vibrato takes time to master, but will take your playing to the next level, allowing you to add more emotion and personality to your playing.
links
Audio Files
- Vibrato
- Wide Vibrato
- Vibrato Example
