The Things All Advancing Beginners Should Know About Vibrato

This lesson is a huge moment in your guitar journey; adding Vibrato to chords and lead guitar will make your playing sound super pro! We'll explore 6 types of Vibrato and when to use them, along with the key technical points to help you nail these techniques.

Vibrato confuses many advancing beginner guitarists who have learned some scales and are starting to improvise with them. Beginners will either apply vibrato techniques in the wrong context or attempt to create Vibrato in their way – by shaking the neck, for example.

💡 This lesson is an introduction to vibrato! We'll explore these vibrato techniques much more deeply in the Intermediate Grades.

But before we start experimenting with Vibrato, let's be clear on what we mean by that name. :)

What Is Vibrato?

You can think of Vibrato as pitch oscillation around a fundamental note. It sounds fancy, but it is quite simple. Let me explain!

When we play a note, we create a sound with a particular pitch called the fundamental note. With Vibrato, we move the string such that the pitch moves above and below the fundamental note.

🚨 Always Come Back! Whatever vibrato type we choose, it's crucial we come back to the fundamental note each time. Otherwise, the note tends to sound a little out of tune.

There are many ways of creating Vibrato on the guitar, and most only create sounds higher than the fundamental note.

However, there are loads of possibilities: you can go above only, below only, or above and below! The possibilities depend on the vibrato technique we go for.

The Two Key Vibrato Variables: Rate and Depth

The two variables of vibrato sound are rate and depth. You have to understand them!

Rate is how fast we move to and from the fundamental note. If we move our fingers slowly, the rate will be low. With fast finger movement, we get a lot of Vibrato.
Depth is how far away from the fundamental pitch we go. The further we move the string, the wider the Vibrato.

Now we have the basic concepts, let's look at our first vibrato technique.

Vibrato #1 - Classical Vibrato

Classical Vibrato is the one that guitarists use the most. However, it's mostly inappropriate on electric and acoustic guitars, being more effective on classical guitars.

💡 I call this Classical Vibrato; other teachers call it Wobbling-Finger Vibrato!

Put your third finger in 2:10 (string 2, fret 10), and pick the string. You create this Vibrato by moving your finger left and right along the string within fret 10. Keep your other fingers and thumb off the guitar.

How does this work? When we move our finger towards the nut, we pull the string in that direction and raise the pitch. We do the opposite when we move our finger towards the bridge – we flatten the note below the fundamental. It's a lovely vibrato, but it's very subtle.

🎧 Classical Vibrato In Pop! To hear this Vibrato in a pop context, check out Sting's guitarist, Dominic Miller. He's an incredible musician and guitarist! You'll hear several types of Vibrato in his playing.

I see lots of guitarists using Wobbling-Finger Vibrato out of context. It sounds great on classical guitar because of the nylon strings, meaning you get a deep vibrato. It's almost the only kind of Vibrato that classical guitarists use, but not the best for Pop, Rock, and Blues guitar.

So if classical Vibrato isn't the best choice for contemporary music, what is? I'm glad you asked. :)

Vibrato #2 - Standard Vibrato

Let's check out what I call Standard Vibrato, one you'll often hear on acoustic and electric guitars in contemporary music.

Place finger 3 on 2:10 again. Pick the note, then move finger 3 up and down while keeping the pressure on the string. That's standard Vibrato. You can move the string up, down, or both. :)

Avoid using your fingers to move the string. The best technique is to use the edge of your hand (at the main knuckle of finger 1) as a pivot point.

Keep your fingers locked together and rock your hand to create the Vibrato. It's the same pivot technique that we use for string bending.

🤔 Which Finger? Standard Vibrato works well with all four fingers on every string, but I tend not to use finger 4 for Vibrato or String Bending because mine is really small! It's your decision whether you practice this technique with finger 4 or not.

It's crucial to note that the pitch only goes up. We can't flatten the pitch using this technique. Even if we pull the string downwards, the pitch rises.

I encourage you to explore this kind of Vibrato and make it your default style. There are others, but this is the most widespread and the easiest to play well.

Remember the two variables: depth and rate. Try out your different fingers and the various directions. These factors make a huge difference.

🎸 Standard Vibrato & Famous Guitarists: My favorite example of a guitarist who often uses Standard Vibrato is Mark Knopfler. His Vibrato is just incredible! BB King also has his own signature vibrato with finger 1, called Butterfly Vibrato. It's a kind of quick (high rate) but shallow (low depth) Vibrato.

Standard Vibrato doesn't need to be wide and fast to be effective. That kind of Vibrato tends to sound quite aggressive, so you'll find it in Rock. Listen to Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, and Gary Moore. Most of the Rock gods have amazing Vibrato!

Another kind of Vibrato often appears in Rock and Blues guitar. Let's have a look.

Vibrato #3 - Blues Vibrato

I discovered Blues Vibrato while transcribing Eric Clapton's music. My Vibrato never seemed on point, so I watched him play and saw he was using his own technique. Sometimes, his whole hand comes off the guitar!

Put your finger 3 on 2:10, making sure no other part of your hand is touching the guitar. Pick the note, keep your finger pressing, and start moving it up and down. It's almost a bouncing motion with the forearm. You need a lot of pressure from the hand.

😅 It took me a lot of practice to get this one down. It just didn't come naturally to me! It's not my go-to Vibrato, but it has its own flavor and is handy occasionally.

Vibrato #4 - Neck Vibrato

I love this technique! Unlike most other techniques, neck Vibrato enables you to move the pitch up and down.

🚨 Warning! This is not the same as wobbling the neck around!

To create this sound, you need to clamp the guitar's body tightly with your strumming hand and push the neck forward or back with your fretting hand.

If you push it forward, the pitch decreases. Pull it back, and the pitch increases. Don't apply too much pressure, or you might snap your guitar neck! You need to be careful with this kind of Vibrato on acoustic guitars.

I love using it with chords – it just breathes life into them! I don't tend to use it for single lines, but don't let me stop you. Get creative. :) You might discover you love adding Neck Vibrato over melody.

Vibrato #5 - Bending Vibrato

We haven't looked at string bending yet, so you might find it tricky to play this Vibrato, but I want you to know that it exists. We can use this type to lower the pitch from the fundamental.

We use the pivot point to play string bends, just like we do with the Standard Vibrato, but instead of rocking the hand back and forth, we push the string up. That raises the pitch. Our goal in string-bending is to bend it to the note one semitone or one tone above the note we fret.

💡 String Bend or Fretted Note? Knowing about this technique helps you decide whether a note is played with a bent string or fretted. If there is "up" Vibrato, it's likely to be fretted. If there's "down" Vibrato, chances are there is string bending involved. :)

For example, place finger 3 on 2:10. Pick the note, then rock the fretting hand such that it pushes the string upwards. Stop when it sounds like the note B at 2:12. You can play 2:12 before bending the string so that you know what to aim for. :)

Now that you've bent the string a tone, release it a little bit, then push it back up to B. This is Vibrato!

👉 I recommend you learn string bending and Vibrato independently before trying to combine them. But do be aware that it exists. :)

Vibrato #6 - Whammy-Bar Vibrato

The whammy bar is a little lever found on some electric guitars. You can play "up" Vibrato or "down" Vibrato with the whammy bar, but we use it mostly to create "down-up" Vibrato. It sounds wicked with chords, but plenty of guitarists add Whammy Vibrato to lead guitar.

🎧 Rock and Metal guitar players make some great sounds with it. Steve Vai is the greatest ever whammy-bar player in my opinion. Jeff Beck is also incredible with it! It’s not really my bag, but for many guitarists, it’s an intrinsic part of their sound.

Which Vibrato to Use?

So that's a whole heap of options for Vibrato! How do you know which one to go for? How do you learn them?

As I said, we're going to go really deep with all these types of Vibrato in the Intermediate course. The main point of this lesson is to make it plain that shaking the guitar neck doesn't produce Vibrato!

🚨 You must be aware of the fundamental note! You need to come back to the original pitch after every oscillation. Otherwise, we hear the note as being out of tune. Does your vibrato sound in tune?

Since there are so many types of Vibrato, and Vibrato becomes part of someone's unique voice, I suggest you listen to your favorite guitarists and focus on their Vibrato. Then you can mimic their sound on your guitar.

Once you've repeatedly heard a vibrato and it has become part of your musical imagination, you must teach your body to repeat that sound through the guitar. That's the aim! By doing this, you'll learn new types of Vibrato and be able to re-create those sounds in the right context.

💡 Be Patient: If you're a beginner and have just started learning the Major Scale, experiment with the different kinds of Vibrato. Play around and have fun! Don't expect to master vibrato right away – it takes time to develop your skills. :)

Vibrato is tricky. There are many subtleties involved, particularly when you're copying a singer. For instance, the rate and the depth often gradually increase as the note is sustained.

We'll come back to these techniques in the Intermediate grades. For now, explore all these techniques, listen to your favorite guitarists, and see what gets your juices flowing! Laters. :)

👉 Next, let's learn about Framing: The Double Strumming Technique!