Does your blues guitar playing suffer from a lack or soul or feeling? In today’s blues guitar lesson, I’m going to tell you how to develop a good blues guitar vibrato by practicing a few different techniques.
So why should you learn how to vibrato? Put simply, vibrato is a way to create your signature sound. Developing a good vibrato will allow you to play less notes with more feeling. Listen to some of the great blues guitar players, and you will notice that their finger vibrato is a key element of their sound. SRV, Albert Collins, Jimi Hendrix, Duane Allman, Buddy Guy, BB King and a number of other blues guitar players have trademark finger vibrato that gives them a unique sound.
So how do you develop your own vibrato style? You must practice vibrato everyday, in different ways, to learn this technique. This is how I practiced my vibrato when I was learning the guitar.
- Vibrato with your index finger on the 5th fret on every string. Now do the same with your middle, ring, and pinky if you want to use it. A lot of blues guitar players never use their pinky, but for some things it may be good to use it for. Concentrate on feeling the note and vibrato it up and down moving your wrist in an even motion. Ideally, you want to practice on as many different frets as possible, because they are all going to feel different. The frets get smaller as you go up the neck, so how far your wrist moves will change.
- Practice your finger vibrato to some blues music at different tempos. Your vibrato will change due to the tempo of a song. When you vibrato make sure your shaking motion is in time with the song. A slower song will need a a slower vibrato, as a fast song will need a faster vibrato. Practice different tempos everyday and your vibrato will see much improvement.
Vibrato is just as important as learning scales. You will separate yourself from everyone else by developing your own unique vibrato style. It will take time, so don’t get frustrated. It will get there. There is no magical potion to drink to develop your vibrato overnight. You will have to practice. OH NO!
In the next blues guitar lesson, I will take about bend vibrato, which is a whole other animal in itself. Until then keep practicing!
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