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Hi, how you doing?[br]Justin here.

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Today we're going to be [br]talking about vibrato.

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It's a very common question[br]this one. I see questions about

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it all the time on the forums [br]and in private lessons

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A lot of people don't really[br]get how to do a vibrato,

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what the different types are [br]So there's three types

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The one that we're looking [br]at today I call "hand vibrato"

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It's the most common type of vibrato [br]that you'll ever find and it's

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definitely the one that I would [br]recommend you get to grips with first

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The other types are "classical vibrato"[br]where you tend to move your hand

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left and right, side to side which [br]is less useful on electric guitar.

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It's possible to use it but it's not [br]really what you want to be checking out

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I think for electric guitar and the [br]other one I call "whole arm vibrato"

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which is the type of vibrato that few guys[br]use like Eric Clapton and John Mayer.

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It's not the most common in blues [br]and rock but it's still definitely worth

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checking out so we're going [br]to do that in a separate lesson.

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Now the idea of vibrato, of course, is to [br]make your guitar sound a little more vocal.

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It's really-really important that you get [br]to grips with the idea of that note

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moving up and down in pitch If you [br]just play the note and you stay on it,

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it tends to sound a little bit flat.

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Especially where singers do that without [br]the vibrato, it sounds really wonky.

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So it's really important to realise [br]that you got to get the note

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and then you want to be changing [br]the pitch up and down a little bit.

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Now on guitar we can make it go [br]up and down with a whammy bar but

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because of the way the instrument is [br]designed we tend to just move the note up.

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Now before I talk about that, [br]let's get to a close up and check

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out the actual technique that [br]you're going to need to use.

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So I want you to start by putting your 3rd[br]finger in the 7th fret of the 3rd string.

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Get the other 2 fingers behind it, [br]just on the 6th and 5th fret.

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Or if they bunch up a little bit, [br]it doesn't really matter.

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And make sure that your thumb [br]is over the top of the guitar.

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Now you can do it without [br]the thumb over the top but

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it's a lot easier to start [br]with the thumb over.

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Now, if we just remove our fingers [br]a little bit I want you to see that the

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1st finger is in contact with the neck[br]because when we've got our fingers down

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actually the vibrato pivot point is this.

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It's actually our hand that's moving, [br]okay. So when we're playing a note

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you'll see there that it's [br]actually this motion, it's the hand.

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I'm exaggerating it now so you can see.

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Okay? It's not this:

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If you try and do it with just your[br]fingers by pulling your fingers in

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like that you end up with [br]this kind of quite odd vibrato

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and usually you'll bend it out of tune [br]as well because it's really important

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that it comes back to the note [br]that we call the "fundamental"

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Which is the first note

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So thumb over the top, 3rd finger [br]on the 7th fret of the 3rd string.

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Play the note

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and then just pull it down a bit[br]and then relax it again and again

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Play and see if you can get into [br]a little pattern of doing that

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Okay, that's how you want [br]to practice the technique

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Just pulling it up

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Now what I tend to think about is [br]when I'm putting the string back up.

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Instead of just going to [br]the spot I'm looking for,

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I tend to try and think of[br]it going a little up as well.

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So I'm pulling it down and when [br]it's going back I'm trying to think

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of it going slightly up, but if [br]you imagine where the sting is

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that's pulling the string down [br]that's pushing it up, okay?

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So even though we're mostly concentrating [br]on pulling the strong down,

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I want to really make sure that [br]I come back to exactly that note.

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Cause if you do the vibrato Like this:

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Now the note that we hear is note in tune.[br]That's the note that's in tune

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So we have to make sure that we [br]keep coming back to that note.

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Just pulling it down

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See if we can get that going[br]nice and smoothly.

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Like I said, I'm thinking about [br]pushing it up a little bit,

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but it's definitely more of a down thing.

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Like it's definitely moving further down.

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It's important to realise that there's[br]2 things that we've got to play with.

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The depth which is how far[br]we're bending it, okay? So:

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You can have a really wide vibrato, like[br]that which is a little bit exaggerated.

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Okay? Or it could be quite subtle. [br]Where it's hardly moving at all.

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Just a little okay. Okay?

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And then of course we've got speed so the[br]wide one slowly will sound really weird.

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Okay? The little one slowly [br]will sound quite nice. Okay?

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So we've got those two different things.[br]Normally the wide one would be quite fast.

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Otherwise it just sounds [br]kind of wrong so you want to

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experiment a little bit with [br]all of those different things so

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Just putting a finger on, see if [br]you can get a nice small vibrato.

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Where it's not moving much. [br]Making sure again you're coming

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back to the note as if it's not [br]being pushed or pulled at all

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And maybe trying to [br]make it a little bit bigger.

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And then back. Okay, then [br]try it with different fingers.

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The first finger's a good one as well.

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Cause then you can really [br]feel that kind of a pulling there.

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You can really see while [br]I've got my first finger straight.

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Bend it in and then by moving my hand [br]you can see that it's making that motion.

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So then put it down.

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Get use to what it feels like. [br]Little, little motions. Big ones.

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And experience. Get a feeling. [br]How does it makes you

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feel when you're doing [br]that nice little subtle vibrato?

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Okay, try it on some [br]other parts of the neck.

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Little vibrato, quite wide vibrato. [br]Now one thing that

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you're going to find straight[br]away on the first string

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You can't pull it down. So you have to be[br]thinking now of pushing it up.

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Okay, so instead of all of that feeling [br]that you had before pulling down.

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It's the same things, [br]it's still the hand moving

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Just a bit more subtle. Try it all over [br]the neck, with all the different fingers.

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I don't tend to use my little finger [br]much for vibrato, to tell the truth.

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But you probably should be able to do it.[br]Okay?

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just going through a bunch of time. [br]Sometimes working on a

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real slow nice vibrato, like you [br]might play in a ballad.

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Just thinking about something [br]really beautiful and soft

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and make the note sound really [br]nice and vocal and singing.

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Other times you might want to be doing:

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Something more aggressive [br]and fast and crazy.

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That one's gone right out of [br]tune because I've gone too crazy.

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But experiment and see because there's a [br]time and a place for every different type

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of vibrato and you want to learn how to [br]make the guitar sound how you imagine.

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One last little tip for you before [br]you start your practise, and that

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will be to emulate the vibrato [br]that you really like.

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So a lot of the guitar players - [br]Angus Young springs to mind, very,

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very distinctive type of vibrato and [br]if you really like that style of vibrato.

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Something that you want to think about [br]is really trying to copy his vibrato.

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So maybe learn one of his [br]licks that's got vibrato in it

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and then sit and try to make [br]your playing sound exactly like his.

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Try and copy it. Listen to it closely. [br]Is it very wide? Is it very fast?

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Or is it very narrow? Is it slow? [br]Really try and pick up on what

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it is that he's doing and then try [br]and make your guitar sound like that.

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It's going to take you some practise, [br]but it's totally worth it.

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Even if you don't end up using [br]his style of vibrato all the time.

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The fact that you've learned [br]how to copy it will mean that

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you're better able to express yourself [br]through the instrument. You know,

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BB King another guy who's got a very[br]distinctive vibrato and it's something-

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it's really, really, important to try and [br]emulate the stuff that you really like.

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The things that really connect with [br]you on a kind of a spiritual level

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That's the stuff that you really want to [br]copy and you want to try and really make-

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incorporate those things into your playing[br]because they obviously resonate with you

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in a kind of a deep way so try and copy[br]the things that really move you.

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The stuff that you really, really like.

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So hope that helps you get [br]your vibrato on track and I'll

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see you for plenty more lessons very soon.

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You take care of yourselves

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Bye