Vibrato

How do you do the vibrato?

The beginning of my index finger touches the low part of the neck and when i rotate my arm i use the finger as a lever against the neck.


This is from Guitar World lessons written by BB King

"I start off by placing my finger on the string while lightly hooking my thumb over the top of the fretboard. Other than the finger fretting the note, no other part of my left hand touches the guitar neck! My vibrato comes from the wrist-starting with a downward motion, I shake my whole hand as quickly and evenly as possible, causing the finger doing the fretting to move back and forth, perpendicular to the neck."

Does the side of your index finger or the side of your palm between your index and your thumb touches the low part of the neck when you make a vibrato?

Yes somtimes if your saying does a part of your index,
finger touch the lower part of neck while you have the,
thumb curled over the top of the neck.
later i will try to answer the wrong way and right way,
to do your vibrato or the BB-KING trill thing.
Its kinda hard to explain with words but i/ll try to put it into words so you don/t learn it the wrong way because
theres alot of advanced guitarests out there that i have met that have been playing for years and still don/t do,
it right.they do alot of shakeing thier left hand but,
thier still not right.
Ok guys i checked out your lessons for the bb-king style,
at guitarworld.Did find in Talking blues figure 3 they put a 0 in, tab where it should have been an 8 in the first 3
notes. first 3 notes->8 11 8 i guess were all human.
1.Make sure when you bend the notes with your third finger,
you use the second finger to support the bend.
2.Now the almighty Trill make sure you use the fleshy part,
of your index finger and not tip of your finger.
Now your index finger will be in a curled looking postion.
When you ececute the trill your thumb should be free of,
neck and kinda of moving in a left to right motion plus,
moving with your left hand fingers.
3.What your index finger will look like when you look ,
at it is its trying to clean a small thumb tac type spot off of,your finger board in the middle of two frets.
4.Make sure you listen to your trill plus thier trill,
untill they sound the same plus take your time go slow.
I can/nt stress this enough use your EARS.
BELOW is a classic bb-king lick useing your second finger,
to help your third finger make the bend .After bending,
up release the bend quickly then execute the TRILL.
You also can use the index finger along with second finger,
to support the bend.

E---br10------
B----------8~
P:S Let me know how you do plus have fun!
later Mark

[Edited by skee1 on 06-20-2001 at 12:07 AM]

yours truly Mark Toman

Permalink

Man, for the life of me I can't nail that B.B. type vibrato!
I just move my hand up and down, kinda like how Clapton does it.
Anybody have any detailed tips would be appreciated.

Since a couple of weeks i take special exercises for vibrato. Allways played them but never took real attention to it. It's difficult to explain how do do it, play it from your wrist not only with the fingers. Now i exercise vibrato with a metronome. Making half notes, quarter notes, triplets etc. in the rythm of the metronome With all four fingers on every string. Before starting playing/exercise i do this for about 10-15 minutes every day and slowly increase speed. Then play along with backing tracks and other artists and listen and play vibrato's. Listen carefully to your own vibrato.

Myself, and anybody I've played with, shakes their hand parallel to the neck. I've seen BB King live, and he does it that way, too.

Use the tip of your finger, placed so that you press perpendicular to the surface of the fretboard, and roll your fingertip rapidly back and forth between the frets.

Trying to shake your hand perpendicular to the neck, (across the fretboard), is likely to do some bizarre things to the pitch, especially if you're doing a bend at the same time.

Skee1 what do you mean when you say BB King trill?
trill is doing rapidly hammer on and pull off, right?
what is BB King doing at the very first note of The Thrill
Is Gone? is that a trill or a vibrato?


After practising for many hours i can do this but still not good enough,

I am fretting a note and then by rotating my wrist
i am trying to move the finger in cyrcles
my hand is on the air but is always in line with the arm
it sounds like BB King's vibrato

Originally posted by BluesShredder
Skee1 what do you mean when you say BB King trill?
trill is doing rapidly hammer on and pull off, right?
what is BB King doing at the very first note of The Thrill
Is Gone? is that a trill or a vibrato?


After practising for many hours i can do this but still not good enough,

I am fretting a note and then by rotating my wrist
i am trying to move the finger in cyrcles
my hand is on the air but is always in line with the arm
it sounds like BB King's vibrato

A Trill is a Rapid back and forth motion useing Vibrato.
And off of the top of my head right now, can/t remember the,
the first note to the thrill is gone.i would have to listen,
to it again then i could play it without a tab.
Like they quoted bb said on guitar world. listen and,
use your ears alot in blues.You could say that really a,
trill is just a fast vibrato.
Another thing bb-king could look like hes useing the tip,
of his finger if you were out front watching him.
But bb has very large fingers so how could you see what,
part of index finger is touching the string?
I got the mighty trill or fast vibrato thing from a friend that could see behind that large index finger.Studio ect
Like i said in a post awhile back that the bb king trill,
would be very hard to explain with words. oh well i tried!
If you listen real close to those lessons on guitar world,
you can hear when a reg vibrato is used plus when a trill,
i used.........................................
Mark
Play the blues but listen!


[Edited by skee1 on 06-19-2001 at 09:33 PM]

I am confused, could you explain a few things,

Lets leave BB King's vibrato out and go to the basics...
"A Trill is a Rapid back and forth motion useing Vibrato"
this is the classical vibrato that is used by violinsts too,
where you push the string towards the right and then you pull it to the left, is that right?

if we are ok with this lets go to the next one,

i always though that trill is what Satriani is doing at
the Fig. 3A and Fig. 3B at
http://www.guitaronemag.com/issues/0005/features/g1_f3.html

isn't that a trill?
what does that have to do with vibrato?

Originally posted by BluesShredder
I am confused, could you explain a few things,

Lets leave BB King's vibrato out and go to the basics...
"A Trill is a Rapid back and forth motion useing Vibrato"
this is the classical vibrato that is used by violinsts too,
where you push the string towards the right and then you pull it to the left, is that right?

if we are ok with this lets go to the next one,

i always though that trill is what Satriani is doing at
the Fig. 3A and Fig. 3B at
http://www.guitaronemag.com/issues/0005/features/g1_f3.html

isn't that a trill?
what does that have to do with vibrato?

I Guess a classical violinsts could do a trill.
Really the trill vibrato is bb-kings trade-mark he was trying to,
duplcate an old blues slide guitar sound,when he first,
started out on the guitar and come up with the trill.
A Trill is vibrato but your just doing it real fast then,
letting it sustain a few sec after its executed
In answer to your Satriani fig. 3A fig. 3B This is, another,tipical screw up in writeing out tab the (tr)
should not be in those 2 tabs your going to see this alot in tab writing by other people.the tab sign should have
been for fast hammering ons plus pull-offs the only,
vibrato i heard was the guitarest that played on the 2
tabs also had a small amount of vibrato in his notes,
i do this alot when teaching hammer ons i have to catch ,
myself other wise my students will say hey my hammer ons,
don/t sound like yours.Its because of habit of playing ,
alot of vibrato for alot of years.
one of my students brought me an Arlon Roth video on blues which i checked out and i'll have to say that he had the,
best explantion for explaining how to do the trill right,
plus the blues bends with vibrato for the bb-king style.
Now Marc Seals from (Guitar Mania is supposed to put a show,
togather on slide guitar plus beginer blues vibrato you,
might check him out.The link is on my web page i can/t ,
think of the link right now but scroll to the bottom of,
my web page and look for the guitar mania link.
Mark

[Edited by skee1 on 06-20-2001 at 01:57 PM]

Vibrato, trill and vibrato trill are three different techniques?

i am trying to copy BB King's sound doing this
i am fretting a note and then i move it down, back, up, forward, and doing that again and again, to sum up i am moving the note in cyrcles. When i am doing that i am taking my thumb off the neck. Am i near at all?

your site is cool, thanks for the link

BluesShredder
pick the note then then very slightly push the string up
with your index finger.but only push the string up the,
thickness of 2 gutar strings,thats not very far.
then execute the vibrato very fast and i mean fast.
You should be able to hear it sustaining for a few sec..
let me know happens ?

Mark

[Edited by skee1 on 06-20-2001 at 03:03 PM]

i pull the string up a little bit, how i execute the vibrato then?
I pull and push the string back and forth?

Originally posted by BluesShredder
i pull the string up a little bit, how i execute the vibrato then?
I pull and push the string back and forth?

Try pushing the string up the thickness of 2 strings,
then keep it pushed up.But don/t release the string,
after pushing it up.Then try pushing up and pulling down,
But make sure the string stays pushed up the 2 string thickness while doing this.
You should hear a pitch change ,when you push up and down.
on the string.
Now to get it to sound like the bb-king vibrato or countless other,guitarests.
Its all in the Shakeing of the left hand useing a rapid back and forth motion,useing your wrist and fingers while keeping the,string pushed up the thickness of 1 or 2 strings.ect.

Mark
P:S This is very hard to explain.plus also even hard for,
some students that know what to do.My best advise is,
keep trying practice and most of all use your ears.
Try to get the sound in your head plus listen to what,
your doing .

if i move the note in cyrcles would that be ok?
i like that sound

thanks you've been a great help

Yes that would be find to move the note in circles.
Experiment thats where its at.

Have fun
Mark