How you'all doing, Justin here.
In this lesson today we're checking out whole arm vibrato.
Now I'm going to be honest.
This is a type of vibrato that I ignored for probably fifteen years or more.
It was something that just didn't ever feel right to me when I tried to play it.
I think the reason it didn't feel right was cause I hadn't practiced it enough.
i had always done the traditional vibrato which is where you put a finger down to
use as a pivot point on the side of your hand like you were doing string bending.
And that's kind of the most common way of doing vibrato.
But I was seeing Eric Johnson and Eric Clapton doing this other vibrato and
it sounded different.
And I guess there must have been value in it if those guys were doing it that way
so I set about learning to do it. I did it by a lot of watching, really, to be
honest, and experimenting myself. I got some great advice from my buddy
Dario Cortese, which is watching videos of the guys that you like doing the technique
you want to learn, with the sound off
Because when the sound is on, our ears are really overtaking things a little bit
You concentrate on that a bit more.
But when you turn the sound off, you can get a good look at what they're doing.
That was really interesting for me to see. And it really is a whole arm vibrato.
The idea really is that with a traditional vibrato, you're gripping the neck
quite solidly and you're using a pivot point at the bottom of the neck, but
with this sort of vibrato, if we start off I'm putting my first finger in the eighth
fret of the second string.
When you play that note, you're actually pushing and pulling with your whole arm.
If I just turn sort of sideways so that you can see this part of my arm here
That's the motion. And what I found was that keeping your hands, not tense, not
angry tense, but locked into the same position so the fingers around the note
Also for some reason, poking the thumb up the back of the guitar neck is something
all of the greats do and it does seem to make it easier. I don't know why.
In theory it shouldn't matter really if you hang everything off, but when it's
in a line a bit, the thumb's up the top and the fingers are hanging down
it seems to make it a little easier. And it's definitely a nice vibrato, this type.
This one doesn't sound as natural to me now that I've been practicing this one.
It seems to sing a little more, or something.
And you also get this sort of, I'm not sure if it'll do it now.
There is this sort of scratchy thing that happens, like that.
So you can get this other type of scratchy thing that I don't really
understand either, to be completely honest, but I just wanted to explain
to you this idea. First finger, eighth fret, second string, making sure that
you get your thumb poking out the top of the guitar
The motion is very much up and down. If you'd try and do it side to side,
like that, it doesn't really do as much.
There is a very mild vibrato there, but it is not the type of vibrato that you want
if you are trying to copy the Eric Clapton style.
The first finger is quite locked. It is solidly in place.
Your hand is a little bit tense, not angry tense, but holding its shape.
And then just start by pulling up and down slowly with your arm.
Really slowly pushing down and then pushing up.
It almost feels like it's kind of bouncey
Just don't worry about the speed, just trying to get it kind of flowing and even.
I do find that mine still sometimes kind of goes from slow to fast
Particularly if I think about it too much. It's really a great one to practice.
First finger is definitely easiest, so. I recommend that you get that one down
first and when you're cool, you can have a go using the other fingers as well.
It does work. It just doesn't feel quite as comfortable for me.
And I do notice most of the guys who are doing it are using the first finger
most of the time. Not all of the time, but most of the time.
So just starting real slow. Remember it's the arm. That's the position of it.
Your whole arm is pushing down. Try it on different parts of the guitar.
Because it feels different. Like here, I end up doing little circles when I'm
more down this end, I think because my hand is further away from my body
It's a little bit more awkward to pull straight down. It's possible, but if feels
a lot more awkward than here where the whole weight of my arm is like doing a
bicep curl. It's a lot easier to get it nice that way.
It feels again different up at the top and there is another interesting thing that
happens as well, which is on the thinnest string.
If you just do it regular on the thinnest string, it just pulls the string off the
end. So when you do it on the thinnest string, you have to be thinking of
pushing it up a little bit more.
It's a great vibrato. It's got that Freddie King thing that seems to work
for that style of older blues as well.
It's a really interesting vibrato. It takes a bit of practice.
The other thing you want to be aware of is string noise. I'm doing some stuff here
with my pick hand, which I should explain. When I'm doing it on the second
string, this hand, my third finger is grabbing the thinnest string.
It's just touching the thinner string. And my pick is resting on the third string
Cuz if I take that hand away, you get all of these other notes ringing out.
The strings on either side because they're getting touched by the motion of your hand
You get all of that stuff. So you want ... nice clean notes. I'm just using the pick
on the third string and either my second or third finger on the thinnest string
To keep everything nice and quiet.
On the thinnest string, I'm using my pick and the edge of my thumb is resting on
all of the strings, really making sure that those other strings stay quiet.
Kind of an important part of this type of vibrato. It is important in the other
traditional style of vibrato as well but it's not as obviously bad.
So, I hope you have a bit of fun with the whole arm vibrato. I love it.
I think it's great and I wish that I had started practicing it 15 years ago instead
of a couple of years ago.
Have fun. Take care. I'll see you for another lesson very soon. Bye bye.