Playing
in the Box
and
Feeling the Vibes
(That's
Vibrato....)
Blues/Rock
Improvisation
PART
THREE
Wow, man! Dig the funky vibes. As I've previously
stated, vibrato is the string player's method of
mimicking that warble the fat opera chic uses to
mask her poor intonation... No, I didn't write
that, what I had said was that vibrato imitates
the lilting warble of the human voice. I'm not a
bog an of singers who use a vibrato that spans
more than an octave, but I do like a big, fat
vibrato a la Yngwie Malmsteen. That boy can make
a note cry.
There are
two different means of achieving that warbling
vibrato. One is used by violinists and classical
guitarists and one falls squarely into the realm
of the electric and steel-string player. Frankly,
I use both methods on classical and electric
guitar. Each has its benefits and I am a sincere
believer that all techniques can be used for the
correct musical reasons. No one technique should
be considered 'banned' from a particular style.
Okay, I'm an iconoclast. Heck, I want to make
music, not live up to someone else's dictums of
propriety.
The Rock n' Roller's
Vibrato
My favorite
 The classical guitarist uses a
simple(!) vibrato--simple until you try to do it
right and get a decent result, that is--The
string is not bent in the classical approach,
though there are reasons why a bend is more
appropriate, but we'll look into that in a
moment. Right now, it's the blues/rock style of
bend that is on deck.
Hey, let's be green.
I've recycled this diagram from last week's
session. It is accompanied by the recycled
pictures of fingers. In this old diagram, the
first finger covers the e and the a on the first
and second strings -- the red and black dots. Red
dot is the tonic, remember? The third finger
covers the d on the third string. We bent the
note up to the pitch one whole step above it last
session. This time we will do the same bend.
LISTEN carefully. Before trying to vibrato, make
dead certain you have made that d an e by bending
the string. D sharp and three quarters is not an
E, so make sure you've gotten there. This is very
important with bends as well as vibrato. You
can't depend on the perfect tuning and intonation
of your instrument, you must, like a violinist,
violist or cellist, listen to the pitch you are
producing.
Let's regurgitate
the technique required to complete the plain and
simple bend. The third finger is then used to dig
slightly under that third string and push it up
towards the sixth string so that the d fretted
pitch is raised in pitch to an e, the same pitch
as is being played on the b string with the first
finger. It will look something like this when the
bend is completed. (Note that the third finger
and the third string are also pushing the fourth
string up into the fifth string. This is gonna
happen and is of no concern.) When I say 'dig
under' the string, I mean that it will require
you to practice to develop the knack of getting
that string to bend up without slipping out from
under your finger. The string should remain pressed
to the fretboard. You're not trying to levitate
it up off the board. Also note that my second
finger has snuck around to help out. You read this all here before, so
now on to the news.
Get
Bent.
Grab hold
of that note as described in the previous
paragraph. Make sure you've hit the right pitch
with your bend by playing the e on the fifth fret
of the second string and comparing the two notes.
Once you've got the pitch locked down, we'll
begin your vibrato. Slightly release
pressure on the third string, allowing it to
return slightly back to
the original d note. Without letting the note
choke out or die, bring it back to the bent e
note. That's one cycle of vibrato. Not to put you
off, but just one vibrato in the typical single
melody quarter note that might require six
complete vibrato cycles to make your musical
statement..
Take a
break. Catch your breath. Okay? Here we go again.
Au
Naturel
This one
is easier. I started with the hard vibrato first
as we've just come off the bend session of last
week. Now we'll vibrato on a plain old fashioned
fretted note with no bend. For this vibrato, one
can use any finger, though because of its
relative weakness to the rest of the fingers, I
find myself using the pinky the least for this
type of vibrato. Once again, using that same d
note as displayed in our diagram, place any of
your first three fingers on that d. I'd suggest
starting with the third finger as that allows
your whole hand to help in the process.
Now for
the fun. We are not going to even try to approach
the e note in this vibrato. In fact, the finest
thing one can say about this vibrato is that you
should not be able to hear a distinct change in
pitch, merely a certain ambiguity. You will be
raising the pitch of the fretted note but only a
miniscule amount. Do this by either pushing the
third string slightly towards the fourth string
and releasing -- smoothly and with slow control--
or by pulling the string down towards the second
string, once again smoothly, slowly and with
great control. This is a technique that must be
carefully practiced to ensure that you are not
just bum's rushing your way through it. Speed is
your enemy here. You want deliberate controllable
action of the left hand. Some say the motion is
all in the wrist, but I have found that while the
majority of the motion is there, the finger
itself should contribute some motion in the form
of a bending at the first joint as well. In the
picture above, I  am using purely the third finger
to slightly pull the third string down towards
the second string. This last picture is me doing
the same vibrato with my second finger. Why
different fingers? Depends on where the melody
has been and where it is going. You are going to
want to have a decent vibrato available no matter
what fingering you're using.
As with
all the little technique builders and exercises I
post here, practice this slowly. In fact, the
best way to do this is with a metronome, counting
your number of cycles per beat of the metronome.
The Classical
Guitarist's Vibrato
It's
very similar to the vibrato you have observed the
orchestral string players use. The hand rocks
back and forth with the finger pad remaining
within the fret, the string is not bent. A slight
vibrato effect is generated, although on the
guitar there should not be too much 'slop' in
intonation available within a fret, wire to wire.
The violinist can actually shift the tip of his
finger enough to raise or lower the pitch because
this player is not limited by fretwire. It's
gonna look very similar to the picture directly
above with the hand rocking in a parallel motion
to the neck.
Make the
motion with your wrist as large as possible to
guarantee a nice, slow vibrato. Speed here will
render the vibrato indistinguishable. Once again,
the metronome will help. LISTEN and observe--then
correct your motion until you make a musical
sound. It's that simple. And that hard.
This
vibrato works well with all fingers, pinky
included. Why did I make a statement above that
the classical guitarist can use a small amount of
string bend to heighten his or her vibrato? It's
because the violinist, not restricted by
fretwire, can indeed raise and lower the pitch by
wiggling the finger pad during the execution of
vibrato. The guitarist is hindered by the
fretwire and can't hope to generate the depth of
vibrato the fiddler can. I have caught myself
using a slight amount of actual pitch bending a
la string bend on the classical guitar. It doesn't
sound bad, but would have made my teacher cringe.
My motto is 'Make Music
and if you have to alter technique to do it,
well, do it!'
That's
it!
Enjoy
these sessions of technique builders! Come back
next week for more.
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you feel you've benefited by these pages, please
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