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Hi, how you doing?
Justin here.

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Today we're going to be 
talking about vibrato.

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

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it all the time on the forums 
and in private lessons

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

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what the different types are 
So there's three types

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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moving up and down in pitch If you 
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 
the vibrato, it sounds really wonky.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Now you can do it without 
the thumb over the top but

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

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

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1st finger is in contact with the neck
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, 
okay. So when we're playing a note

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you'll see there that it's 
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
fingers by pulling your fingers in

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

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

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that it comes back to the note 
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 
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
and then relax it again and again

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

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

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Just pulling it up

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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I want to really make sure that 
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.
That's the note that's in tune

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So we have to make sure that we 
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
nice and smoothly.

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Like I said, I'm thinking about 
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
2 things that we've got to play with.

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

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

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Okay? Or it could be quite subtle. 
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
wide one slowly will sound really weird.

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Okay? The little one slowly 
will sound quite nice. Okay?

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

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Otherwise it just sounds 
kind of wrong so you want to

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experiment a little bit with 
all of those different things so

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

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

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

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And maybe trying to 
make it a little bit bigger.

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And then back. Okay, then 
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 
feel that kind of a pulling there.

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

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Bend it in and then by moving my hand 
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. 
Little, little motions. Big ones.

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And experience. Get a feeling. 
How does it makes you

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

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

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Little vibrato, quite wide vibrato. 
Now one thing that

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

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

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

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It's the same things, 
it's still the hand moving

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

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

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

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just going through a bunch of time. 
Sometimes working on a

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

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Just thinking about something 
really beautiful and soft

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and make the note sound really 
nice and vocal and singing.

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Other times you might want to be doing:

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Something more aggressive 
and fast and crazy.

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

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

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

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

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will be to emulate the vibrato 
that you really like.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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in a kind of a deep way so try and copy
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 
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