I have been thinking about this subject lately and tried to think what it is that I am actually doing subconsciously on my electric guitar. So I found out that I use 4 types of different vibratos:
1)"Standard" vibrato, basically, the finger moves the string up and down. I noticed that if I want to make it fast on the first finger, I do a little bit of the BB King butterfly, but just a bit :D . On long tones, I actually remove the thumb from the neck and almost move the string with the whole arm.
2) "Classic" - the first string instrument I learned as a wee boy was the violin. The vibrato there is done with the finger vibrating sideways. The string is not tensed and released a lot like in the "standard", but you can get a high-frequency vibrato nevertheless. I tend to use it on more quiet stuff, maybe jazzy direction. I used to use it more when playing acoustic guitar, but on the electric not a lot.
3) My "fake slide" vibrato: I use the whammy bar on my strat quite a lot, I have bent and modified it a bit and made it sticky so it stays in position where I can easily reach it. I use it either with very gentle movements to provide a nice vibrato, but also can give it a bit more movement which makes the note sound a little bit like a slide vibrato. As the string is tensed and released it gives a very different sounding vibrato than the "standard". I definitely don't use the Richy Blackmore style frantic whammy bar vibrato, that is a bit too much for me. Nice and gentle. While my guitar gently weeps sort of feel.
4) The bending string vibrato: This is the most difficult one (at least for me) as you have to first bend the string, and then apply vibrato. I tend to use while pushing the string up, but on some of the lower strings I started lately to also push them down and then wiggle it for the vibrato. This one I am currently giving it some more time to get it better, as it still does not feel "natural" to me as I used the whammy bar on it before.
Every player has a different vibrato, for me, I tend to keep it sort of slow, going for the "similar to human voice vibrtato" freuency, although sometimes I wish I could go frantic like Paul Kossoff on his Les Paul :)
So tell me your thoughts on this subject, love to hear about your techniques.
1)"Standard" vibrato, basically, the finger moves the string up and down. I noticed that if I want to make it fast on the first finger, I do a little bit of the BB King butterfly, but just a bit :D . On long tones, I actually remove the thumb from the neck and almost move the string with the whole arm.
2) "Classic" - the first string instrument I learned as a wee boy was the violin. The vibrato there is done with the finger vibrating sideways. The string is not tensed and released a lot like in the "standard", but you can get a high-frequency vibrato nevertheless. I tend to use it on more quiet stuff, maybe jazzy direction. I used to use it more when playing acoustic guitar, but on the electric not a lot.
3) My "fake slide" vibrato: I use the whammy bar on my strat quite a lot, I have bent and modified it a bit and made it sticky so it stays in position where I can easily reach it. I use it either with very gentle movements to provide a nice vibrato, but also can give it a bit more movement which makes the note sound a little bit like a slide vibrato. As the string is tensed and released it gives a very different sounding vibrato than the "standard". I definitely don't use the Richy Blackmore style frantic whammy bar vibrato, that is a bit too much for me. Nice and gentle. While my guitar gently weeps sort of feel.
4) The bending string vibrato: This is the most difficult one (at least for me) as you have to first bend the string, and then apply vibrato. I tend to use while pushing the string up, but on some of the lower strings I started lately to also push them down and then wiggle it for the vibrato. This one I am currently giving it some more time to get it better, as it still does not feel "natural" to me as I used the whammy bar on it before.
Every player has a different vibrato, for me, I tend to keep it sort of slow, going for the "similar to human voice vibrtato" freuency, although sometimes I wish I could go frantic like Paul Kossoff on his Les Paul :)
So tell me your thoughts on this subject, love to hear about your techniques.
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