Bending and adding vibrato

This is something I really want to get down. Gilmour seems to do it a lot, and his solos are among my favourites. How is it done exactly? Do you have to bend the string towards your palm? That seems like the easiest way to do it for me...

Any tips?

If your on the low E string youd have to bend down or you'll fret out right off the fretboard obviously. Bend up or down when on middle strings and up on the bottom strings or again you'll fret out.

You can anchor your hand against the neck and bend with your wrist or bend with your fingers only. For vibrato you can bend the strings or shake your fingers back and forth on the strings it's really up to what works for you. Although a shake type of vibrato works best on top or bottom string or again youll fret out.

Use all your fingers to reinforce the bend. (when on the 2nd fret for instance I will place two fingers in between frets to reinforce the bend) There really is no right or wrong way and everyones bend or vibrato is different. You can bend the strings or shake your fingers back and forth on the strings it's really up to what works for you.

:)

I'm assuming the question is how to achieve vibrato on a bent note, as opposed to them seperately. I could do bends well first, then came a gradual vibrato, and lastly combining the two. But I found my usual vibrato not nearly as useful...it had to come almost entirely in the fingers in order to maintain the accuracy of the note. This requires another level of finger strength (and muscle memory).
However...I quickly (and gladly) referenced my recorded Pink Floyd concert from this last July, searching for a display of bent note vibrato. His normal vibrato came from mostly his fingers. Yet nearly every bent note they showed on camera, he used his strat tremelo instead. Not to say he doesn't ever use his fingers for vibrato on bent notes (although I didn't find one in my 3 song reference), but that tremelo usage is also a skill of it's own, and often overlooked and/or underestimated.

[font=trebuchet ms]It's late, and I'm too tired to do a decent search for it, but Dr_simon has a good GT video lesson on this very subject.[/font]

Pressing harder definetly helps vibrato....

check this out ! If I could only post one lesson here it would be this one !!

http://www.guitartricks.com/lesson.php?input=8334

The vibrato is made by the wrist right? Not by actually moving the fingers.

[font=trebuchet ms]This may not be 'proper' technique, but I shake the hell out the neck, so there's probably wrist and finger flexing going on.

YMMV...[/font]

Man... I gotta get my video working. This is impossible to explain without actually showing it.

When I do it it is all in the fingers, unless Im doing BB King style

I used to find it impossible to do a bending vibrato, but it actually didn't take too much practice to get the hang of. I've heard that you shouldn't leave the job of moving those strings to your fingers, but should use your wrist which is much more prepared to handle the tension.

Well like I said when I do it to get that really sweet Tom Petty sound, I use fingers almost exclusively.

Check out the video !!

http://www.guitartricks.com/lesson.php?input=8334

I just do it with one finger.
Guitar playing too.

yeah, ive always found it easier to do it with the fingers. i usually use my middle cuz i have the most controll over that one.

Getting good vibrato bending the G,B or high E can be difficult...bend with your ring finger with your middle and index behind it.I vibrato using hand motion more than my fingers.

I actually bend the G down.There is plenty of room to bend at least a whole tone...obviously the B and high E come right off the fretboard if you try it on them.

I found it easier to bend the strings toward my palm but because it was harder the other way I stuck with that until my fingers became stronger. Now it's not even an issue.