# How do you guys do VIBRATO?



## Jan (Jan 2, 2008)

I've been playing for quite a while now but I've never really developed a proper vibrato... Recently I have noticed that my "vibrato" was sloppy, tensed up my hand and also sounded crappy (adjectives "uneven", "unstable" and "hysterical" seem to provde an accurate description  ). After watching a few vibrato lessons on Youtube and trying out some stuff I'm wandering hoh YOU guys do it... 

I mean do you bend up and then release (and so on) or down and release or maybe up AND down? Does anybody use a sideways movement (like some player do on classical guitar)? 

I mean now I can do bends quite well but I need vibrato for long, slow, atmospheric solo melodies with lots of delicious reverb (think progressive rock) so I don't want a big variation in pitch, I just want to make the sound sort of smoother and fuller, sort of more "round" if you know what I mean. Also, I have noticed that it's much easier for me to bend the string DOWN than up, dunno why... Any thoughts/tips that would be helpful?


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## 7 Strings of Hate (Jan 2, 2008)

i like to use my wrist and plant my finger on the string and twist my wrist loosely, sounds simple, but it takes practice


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## Edroz (Jan 2, 2008)

i think one of the best things you can do to develop your vibrato is listen to and watch guitarists whose vibrato you like and try to emulate it. 
i don't even know if i would be able to break down and explain my vibrato to someone else, i just do it.
i basically just spent years listening to and trying to sound like Andy Laroque, Yngwie, George Lynch, Zakk Wylde, John Petrucci, etc, etc., and developed my own style from there.


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## DDDorian (Jan 2, 2008)

My bending/vibrato technique is somewhat unconventional. I pull the string up towards the treble strings rather than push it down,and I primarily use my second finger, although I can get around with my third finger and to a lesser extent my pinky. The width of the vibrato generally differs depending on how drastic the bend is. For instance, if I'm bending two full steps, I'll bend up to the target note and the vibrato will hover between that note and a slightly lower pitch, but if I'm only bending a step or so my vibrato will "hover" around the target note by about a quarter-note each side. The vibrato itself is usually pretty quick, although sometimes I "stagger" it so it's more like a bunch of grace notes than actual vibrato, or I'll go nice and slow for that Michael Schenker vibe.

My biggest influences as far as bending/vibrato go are Marty Friedman, Steve Lukather and Eric Johnson, and more recently a whole bunch of country session guys like Vince Gill and Brent Mason. Pulling up rather than pushing down adds a bit more "cat hiss" to the sound and makes the oriental/koto-esque stuff pretty easy, as well as facilitating a diet pedal steel approach. The downside for me is that my bends on the high E and B strings are substantially duller than bends on other strings due to lessened technique. Also, trying to play more conventional bendy licks totally fucks me over, I have nightmares about the "Sweet Child O'Mine" solo to this day, heh.


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## guitarplayerone (Jan 2, 2008)

Vai.com > Little Black Dots > Martian Love Secrets > Part 2: Musical Meditation
Part two has your answer.


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## Jongpil Yun (Jan 3, 2008)

I do classical vibrato on close to every note that's an 8th or longer, and normal down-return on really emphasized notes, in which case the general rule is bend the first five strings down, and the other two up (that way you don't bend the string off the board or anything). I've been using bar vibrato more and more lately though, and I've gotten pretty good at picking with the bar in my hand without moving the bar much, something I've taken from Shawn Lane.


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## garcia3441 (Jan 3, 2008)

You could always cheat:

Buy DOD FX22 VibroThang Vibrato Pedal online at Musician's Friend


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## heffergm (Jan 3, 2008)

Check out the Vai article. He covers the 3 types of vibrato that you'll want to work on.


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## Jan (Jan 3, 2008)

thanks guys. I'll read Vai's article.


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## distressed_romeo (Jan 3, 2008)

Another one to try is the 'jack-off' vibrato, where you slide rapidly back and forth between two fretted notes. It's not the kind of thing you'll want to overuse, but it has quite a unique sound. George Lynch uses it a hell of a lot.


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## guitarplayerone (Jan 3, 2008)

garcia3441 said:


> You could always cheat:



and cut out one of the most expressive aspects of my playing and put into its place a little bit of 9v- powered fakeness? no thanks.


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## Luan (Jan 3, 2008)

distressed_romeo said:


> Another one to try is the 'jack-off' vibrato, where you slide rapidly back and forth between two fretted notes. It's not the kind of thing you'll want to overuse, but it has quite a unique sound. George Lynch uses it a hell of a lot.



Wow, that is a cool idea, of course that I've played that in a few ocassions, but never thought of it as a vibrato, I will search for videos of beck playing that.

I started to learn how to play vibrato by watching and listening to zakk wylde.
He says (and it's what he does ) that he practiced vibrato by bending the string all he cans.
If you observe what he does you will learn a lot about it, but he does a very particular vibrato, and I've listened to other players do that, but I would not do it because it's too much his style, you will sound more like a copy, but, it's cool to use sometimes, if you are playing a really metal solo or something exaggerated.
Then the next guitarist I saw and learned A LOT is John Petrucci.
Altough he doesn't uses a extreme vibrato all the times, he can do any kind of vibrato, slow to fast, wide to short (?).
He plays vibrato with the bar on situations that is more hard to do vibrato by the fingerings being used, or the position where he plays, or if he plays 3 notes or more, or if he wants a really wide vibrato, he uses the bar with chords a lot just like Holdsworth.
Plus, he is one of the guitarists that does one of the most in tune vibratos ever.
Then, the next guitarist is: SHRED DURST.
He has a video on youtube teaching vibrato, and he said something very simple about it, play it SLOW, in fact if you practice it slow, you will master the wide, fast and every other that you want.

Yngwie it other one that has a very in tune vibrato, the scalloped neck is cool for that kind of things.
I hate Cooley's vibrato for example, he uses it for showing how wide and technical he can play it, and it sound ugly for me.

And I never could play correctly the circular vibrato, I would like to see a video of Vai playing it.
I've readed that he can play it with chords too, what I just can't understand .

Vibrato is something that really makes the difference. 90% of the players on youtube can't fucking play it decently, yeah, they master the end of this dying soul but with horrible vibrato on any blues solo or whatever.
There's this quote by somebody on the petrucci forum "Youtube killed vibrato"   

Well, I recommend to practice it slow, and observe guitarists that mastered it.
That's what I did and my vibrato got a lot better, really.

(my keyboard got out of batteries because I wrote a lot)


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## BrianCarroll (Jan 3, 2008)

Rem (à la M. Goodrick):
- Where does it come from ? Voice ? Interesting... 
- Does it mean something ? Sometimes the best vibrato is no vibrato at all.
- Vibrato or vibratos ?


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## Luan (Jan 3, 2008)

Yeah, vibrato by itself doesn't mean anything, it really helps to the notes on a solo, and being used bad (in my opinion I don't like how Rusty uses it, i've already said that) it can fuck up the solo.


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## Jongpil Yun (Jan 3, 2008)

I don't like Rusty's vibrato either for the most part, but in some places he really nails it. But I digress. If you want to hear really good vibrato to copy, listen to some sopranos.


Ms. Hillary Hahn (actually a violinist)



The eminent Sarah Brightman:



Patti fuckin' Labelle


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## Luan (Jan 3, 2008)

Well, of course that I was talking about guitarists only, I never thought of copying singer's vibrato, wich could be a very cool idea, but I was thinking (when I wrote my post) of the technical aspect of it rather than sound, how you put your finger, etc, because believe it or not, that was harder to understand for me rather than the sound (if it's wide or short, etc).
Of course that it's a good idea to look for other instruments, as you can learn a lot of the articulations being used in indian chant for example.

Also, I forgot to say that I bend down to the floor the low E, A, D and G strings always, most of the times the B string too, sometimes up to the sky (ha!), but the first string always up.
Or I use the bar.
And When I play classical guitar I always use classical vibrato, and when I play acoustic I use the same vibrato for electric, excepting for chords (I use like a classical for those).


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## Naren (Jan 4, 2008)

Jan said:


> Does anybody use a sideways movement (like some player do on classical guitar)?



I do. I don't really think about how I do vibrato, but I'm a vibrato slut. When I play solos, I vibrato the shit out of every single note. And when I'm playing rhythm guitar with single note areas, I vibrato out everything like crazy. It seems my main use of vibrato is the sideways classical-type thing. However, I imagine how I want the vibrato to sound in my head and then play the note however I have to to make it sound that way. 

I think listening to other guitarists and just playing is the only real way to develop it. I've been playing vibrato since I first started playing guitar almost 8 years ago. I'm sure I sucked at it at first, but I never even think about it now, despite the fact that it's the guitar technique that I use the most.


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## distressed_romeo (Jan 4, 2008)

+100000000000000 for studying Indian music and female singers.

Lisa Gerrard is the single biggest influence on my own vibrato (search 'Dead Can Dance' on this site and you should find some vids), and Diamanda Galas' vocal effects are another major source of inspiration.


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## Summers45 (Jan 4, 2008)

I do vibrato sub-consiously. It sometimes even sounds over-used in recordings I've heard of myself playing but I can't help it - I guess it gives me my own style aswell. I just automatically do it without thinking all the time. 

The way I do it is I sort of twist my wrist back and forth through 90 degrees-ish.


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## Luan (Jan 4, 2008)

I do it automatically too.

I've noticed a long time ago that jazz players never do vibrato and now it's part of their playing style.

About studying indian music: they never use vibrato, but really great articulations.


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## Groff (Jan 4, 2008)

Ususally I just use my wrist and let it loosely pull the string. Other times, when I need it to sound huge and powerful (especially with wah ) I use two or three fingers planted on the string and bend the shit out of it.


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## kmanick (Jan 4, 2008)

Watch guys like Jeff Beck.
your vibrato should make the note sing.
too many players are impatient and start shaking their notes as soon as they hit them.
it sounds so amateurish.


Frank Gambale on vibrato and phrasing


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## Jongpil Yun (Jan 4, 2008)

distressed_romeo said:


> Another one to try is the 'jack-off' vibrato, where you slide rapidly back and forth between two fretted notes. It's not the kind of thing you'll want to overuse, but it has quite a unique sound. George Lynch uses it a hell of a lot.



On a fretted instrument, that becomes a trill.


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## Luan (Jan 4, 2008)

Jongpil Yun said:


> On a fretted instrument, that becomes a trill.



I would say that it becomes a mix of both


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## guitarplayerone (Jan 5, 2008)

Jongpil Yun said:


> On a fretted instrument, that becomes a trill.



Yes, it does.
Does anyone else notice that its impossible to mimic the vibrato of a floyd with your fingers, and vice versa? its very useful for getting various feels...

edit:
Holy fuck, never seen Gambale play before (I know I know).


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## Jongpil Yun (Jan 5, 2008)

guitarplayerone said:


> Yes, it does.
> Does anyone else notice that its impossible to mimic the vibrato of a floyd with your fingers, and vice versa? its very useful for getting various feels...
> 
> edit:
> Holy fuck, never seen Gambale play before (I know I know).



Well, other than stuff like general feel, it's also much harder to get your finger vibrato to go down in pitch, since any bend is going to raise the pitch (except for when you move your finger towards the bridge in classical vibrato, but that's a very subtle flattening).


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## guitarplayerone (Jan 5, 2008)

Jongpil Yun said:


> Well, other than stuff like general feel, it's also much harder to get your finger vibrato to go down in pitch, since any bend is going to raise the pitch (except for when you move your finger towards the bridge in classical vibrato, but that's a very subtle flattening).



The only way is to begin a note on a 'bend' but not really a bend- the physical maximum extension from the fretted note of a vibrato. or not maximal- but that would take some real wizardry to to on command

I've figured out a wierd 'zig-zag' vibrato recently that is a combo of both directions of vibrato simultaneously (but not 'circle'). Been working on circle too. Only recently have I learned the importance of a good vibrato..


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## stubhead (Jan 5, 2008)

> About studying indian music: they never use vibrato



You've clearly never "studied" Indian music - the slow _alap_ section you skip over to get to the juicy bits? Stop skipping over it.... There are a few technique books available, the easiest, most guitaristic one is called "My Music, My Life" by Ravi Shankar - it's long out of print, but they show up on Ebay once in a while. There are specific Indian exercises varying the pitch up and down, from under it to on pitch, under it to over it, from a minute fraction to 1 1/2 steps, slow, fast etc. It all comes from their vocal exercises, and they're not instrument-specific. Violin books discuss it extensively too, Like Carl Flesch's "Art of Violin Playing: Book One."


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## Ancestor (Jan 5, 2008)

It might help to try practicing getting it as wide and slow as possible. I'm still trying to work on mine, too.


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## Luan (Jan 5, 2008)

I never skip alap since it's the better part, and I insist that they never use vibrato, what you're saying is the use of mind (I don't know how they spell it), that is just a decoration, that they even use as an articulation.

Oh, and it's clear that I've never studied Indian classical music? My dad *teaches* it (he studied some years in India), and I've learnt from him.


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## stubhead (Jan 5, 2008)

> what you're saying is the use of mind (I don't know how they spell it)


What this refers to is the _meend:_


> In Hindustani music meend refers to the bending or deflecting of pitches. It is an essential performance practice in both vocal and instrumental music.



What I'm referring to is known as the _gamak:_


> In Hindustani music, gamak refers the variation of pitch of a note. Or it is the flow of note from one to other without breaking. It is an essential performance practice in both vocal and instrumental Indian music. In Indian music any note is not played or sung plainly, instead, it flows from one note to other. This gives richness and depth to the music. For each raga the gamak will be different even though the two notes with which it is formed are same.



Since Hindustani music has microtones less than seven cents apart, this _can be_ perceived as a vibrato by Western ears, and _most all_ Westerners try to cop it would think of is as a vibrato going from a tonic to a note(s) a certain distance away - if you can identify this as two (or three) microtones of a certain raga as played by a certain musician rather than as a variant of the starting pitch, more power to you!  

Conceptually, I _believe_ that Indian musicians see the meend as going between two pitches and the gamak as a fixed variation off of one pitch, but it's hard to tell - Westerner musicologists writing about Indian music are usiually hopeless provincial (hence retarded, since it won't fit _their_ schemes) and Indians writing about usually dumb it down for the honkies. (Even calling them microtones is trying to Westernize them, really). 

You may well know more about it than I - but _I'll_ continue to think of _my_ gamaks as belonging to one school of vibrato.  I would love to find a real teacher, but it's among the things that probably just aren't going to happen. I like electricity and air-conditioning too much to go to India and sit on the floor.... I sometimes wish I didn't like so _many_ different kinds of music, there's not enough time...


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## Luan (Jan 5, 2008)

I understand what you say, but you know, sitarists, santurists (for obvious reasons..), dilruba players and a lot of other instruments with or without frets don't use vibrato.
For me gamak, altough it is very similar to vibrato, it's a different effect, it sounds different, I think that it's more used going up and returning to the pitch than lowering and returning to the pitch, wich gives that characteristic sound.

edit: Seems like it's not how I said, but definitely sounds different for some reason.


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## Demeyes (Jan 6, 2008)

This thread helped me a bit with my vibrato. Its something I always want to get better with but don't do enough for. Its a real sign of a weaker player I think when they don't do any or have a very weak one.
I tend to use up/down most of the time and then classical side to side on shorter notes on the higher strings.


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