Difference between revisions of "Vibrato"

Revision as of 13:19, 10 April 2014

Vibrato is a simple concept but a difficult technique to master. It involves moving the pitch of a note up and down repeatedly, to give a sustained note a bit more emphasis or livliness. The actual pitch of the note is in constant motion, moving up and down but never staying absolutely still.

Common Methods

Bending

The most common way this is performed is by doing very small bends (see Bending. The same way you do a quarter bend, you start your vibrato. While bending is typically designed to reach a certain pitch (and possibly return to the original), vibrato only wants a small deviation from the original pitch but to start to return to the original pitch as soon as the peak of that deviation is reached. And when the pitch is back to the original, you start to bend up again.

Note that with this technique, you can only go above the original pitch, not above and below. The average pitch of the vibrato is actually above the original note.

One thing to watch out for is that you only bending in one direction. IE, you are always pushing the string away from its natural fretted position, or you are always pulling it. If you push up, then don't simply allow the string to return to its natural position but "pull through" that point and begin bending higher in pitch using a pulling technique, there is an artificial sound to the transition. Picture a sine wave - the high and low peaks are rounded off and smooth. When you "pull through", you don't smoothly approach the low peak but blaze through it. This would be like if the sine wave had pointy peaks on the bottom but rounded peaks on top, like a bouncing ball.

Pushing/Pulling

Where bending is vertical motion, pushing/pulling is horizontal motion. Without actually moving your finger's position on the string, you move your hand towards and away from the bridge. The friction of your finger against the string is actually strong enough to slightly push and pull the string towards and away from the bridge, decreasing and increasing (respectively) the tension on the resonating part of the string.

This technique is difficult to master - it feels like you are going to slide off the fret. In this regard, it's very difficult to get a wide/large vibrato from this technique.

The main benefit to this technique is that you are not simply changing the pitch above the original note but above and below it. Thus, the average pitch of the vibrato and original note should be very close.

Vai's Circle Vibrato

Steve Vai decided using just one of the above techniques was not enough, so he developed a "circle vibrato" technique that combines them both. It's basically a 4-motion vibrato; however, each motion blends into the next one to keep it sounding smooth.

1. push the string towards the bridge, lowering the pitch
2. bend the string slightly, while continuing to push the string towards the bridge, raising the pitch to the original pitch or slightly above
3. pull the string away from the bridge, raising the pitch
4. release the bend, while continuing to pull the string, so the pitch is slightly above the original pitch

You'll notice you end up making something like a circular motion, hence "circle vibrato". You can swap the push for the pull in the steps above so you are making a counter-clockwise circle vs. clockwise, if that's more comfortable - the overall effect is unchanged.

So what's the benefit? You get the best aspects of both - the average pitch is closer to the original pitch than if just using bending, but you can get a bigger/wider vibrato than just using pushing/pulling. You can also purposefully reduce the smoothness of the transitions above, which can give a strange yet appealing sound to the vibrato in some cases. The downside is that this technique takes some serious practicing to get it to sound natural and smooth. It's also difficult to perform with the same speed as the other techniques. And speed is really a crucial part of the vibrato, to make it sound like a unified effect instead of a series of pitch shifts.

I don't know of any player besides Vai that uses this technique. I think it's worth learning for the sheer versatility, but I wouldn't worry about mastering it unless you find something really appealing to its sound.

Whammy Bar

The whammy bar is the easiest and most versatile way to get a good vibrato. You can make it extremely large/wide. It's easier to apply to bends. You can apply it to chords, which is basically impossible for the above techniques. You can even continue the vibrato as you change notes on your left hand. And you can shift the pitch above and below the original note, so the average pitch matches the original.

The only real downside is that it is difficult to use the pick and whammy bar at the same time. And if you're not already holding the bar, transitioning from picking to grabbing the bar can

Good Technique