Guitar Technique: Vibrato [Hand Movement] (Guitar Lesson TE-008)

Hi, how you doing?
Justin here.

Today we're going to be
talking about vibrato.

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

it all the time on the forums
and in private lessons

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

what the different types are
So there's three types

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

it tends to sound a little bit flat.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

actually the vibrato pivot point is this.

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

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

I'm exaggerating it now so you can see.

Okay? It's not this:

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

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

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

that it comes back to the note
that we call the "fundamental"

Which is the first note

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

Play the note

and then just pull it down a bit
and then relax it again and again

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

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

Just pulling it up

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cause if you do the vibrato Like this:

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

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

Just pulling it down

See if we can get that going
nice and smoothly.

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

but it's definitely more of a down thing.

Like it's definitely moving further down.

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

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

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

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

Just a little okay. Okay?

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

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

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

Otherwise it just sounds
kind of wrong so you want to

experiment a little bit with
all of those different things so

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

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

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

And maybe trying to
make it a little bit bigger.

And then back. Okay, then
try it with different fingers.

The first finger's a good one as well.

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

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

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

So then put it down.

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

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

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

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

Little vibrato, quite wide vibrato.
Now one thing that

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Just thinking about something
really beautiful and soft

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

Other times you might want to be doing:

Something more aggressive
and fast and crazy.

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

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

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

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

will be to emulate the vibrato
that you really like.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The stuff that you really, really like.

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

see you for plenty more lessons very soon.

You take care of yourselves

Bye