• Registered: 2015-08-12
  • Posts: 4

Topic: Please help me with my vibrato!!

Dear joe, I saw you last april at the fox theater in Detroit, you changed my life I'll be honest, I was a Hendrix junky and a zepplin junky and most definitely bored of all of the music I had been listening to prior to discovering you. I would like to thank you for showing me the blues, I found you on YouTube and heard you playing blistering riffs with hints of all of my other favorite guitarist. I would like to thank you so much because of how you made my musical knowledge so much bigger, you showed me people like Paul Kossoff, Johnny Winter, Freddie King, Albert King, Eric Clapton with the Blues Breakers! Steppin out is a riff that repeats in your head and can put you in a good mood instantly! You are all of those guitar players put into one joe, and you deserve everything coming your way and everything that has already happened. My main point of this post is that I am 14 and consider myself an "OK" guitarist, well obviously not compared to a lot of other people in the forum but I need help, I can not play a note with a good vibrato for my life, it is very hard for me and I try for an hour a day and nothing has yet to come from it, is there any exercises I could do to become better at this? Thank you again joe, you are the best, and the future of the blues

  • From: Massachusetts, USA
  • Registered: 2014-04-12
  • Posts: 663

Re: Please help me with my vibrato!!

Vibrato is harder to learn than it looks. You can teach someone the mechanics of what's happening, but after that, its all about building muscle memory. Start with a slower vibrato. Also there are different styles. Eric Clapton and BB King have very different vibrato technique. Personally, I favor the BB king approach, rocking the hand vs moving it up and down. Stick with it, it will come slowly, I struggled for years with it, and now my vibrato is actually quite good, though I'm not that good at big bend vibrato. Start with a slow vibrato, and you'll build those pathways in the brain, then over time you can bring up the speed to where you want it. Stick with it, you'll get there.

Play some cards & drink black coffee,
How I’d love to see you smile....
JBLP Std Goldtop
2015 R9 LP
  • Registered: 2015-08-12
  • Posts: 4

Re: Please help me with my vibrato!!

Thank you! ]

  • Registered: 2014-07-05
  • Posts: 41

Re: Please help me with my vibrato!!

I used to play classical guitar fairly well when I was much younger. I learned the classical vibrato method which I use to this day on electric guitar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh-IUxWzfQk

Very different technique and sound compared to typical electric guitar vibrato.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06M2-51JF80

Bill

5 Reply by Ian916 (edited by Ian916 2015-08-14 16:14:03)

  • From: Sussex UK
  • Registered: 2009-07-12
  • Posts: 1,465

Re: Please help me with my vibrato!!

speaking as somebody who has watched a youngster develop as a guitarist ( my son now 16) and a 15 year old daughter develop playing viola (vibrato all over the place) I would not worry too much about it, - vibrato is as much about feeling and touch as it is technique, - over think it and it will not sound right. - Get the basics down and work out what is right for you.  - Good luck and enjoy, - my advice; play live as often as you can, so many kids spend hours playing on their own, music is about communication and needs to be shared. smile

My YouTube channel with plenty of my Joe's videos dating from 2009 inc his first Hammersmith Odeon ones:
http://www.youtube.com/ian916fun

Ian916's Website

  • From: Orlando, FL
  • Registered: 2010-04-15
  • Posts: 1,373

Re: Please help me with my vibrato!!

Like anything else - practice and listen.  Might be helpful to record yourself and listen back.

Here's a good TGP thread on vibrato:
http://www.thegearpage.net/board/index. … d.1293348/

My music & music blog: https://vincedickinson.home.blog/
New prog/rock album "Atlantis" available everywhere, including:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/atlantis/1411523163
https://open.spotify.com/album/3InrPujiALJCslZqp9V6e2

ZeyerGTR's Website

  • Devan
  • Devan
  • BONAMETAL
  • Offline
  • From: Darwin, Australia
  • Registered: 2010-04-13
  • Posts: 1,304

Re: Please help me with my vibrato!!

Some tips:

* Use your strongest finger to hold down the note - usually your third finger of your left hand.  But practice using alternative fingers if you can, to build strength.
* If you can, use the fingers BEHIND the fretted note to help holding the note down.
* Move the string up and down using the muscles in your forearm and/or by rotating your wrist.  NOT by wiggling your fingers!  This will give you better control.
* Start slow.  Save the 'Angus Young' frenetic vibrato stuff until you have built up control and strength (and callouses) smile
* Practice the 'singer's vibrato', which I found was the best way to train my ears to stay on pitch.  This means start by slowly bending the note up a half step or so, the begin with a SLOW vibrato which gradually speeds up as the note decays away.  Listen to good vocalists and violinists to hear how they do it.
* Practice bending the string up AND down for vibrato, so you learn to control it.
* Practice using spare fingers on either hand muting the other strings to they don't ring out while you a bending your intended string.  It is harder to fix this later than you think.

Best of luck! cool

JBLP Gold Top #129 - redubbed "#1 in Oz"