best/favorite vibrato?

A place to discuss specific playing techniques.
Andy G
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Joined: Mon Dec 06, 2004 10:03 pm

Re: best/favorite vibrato?

Post: # 246675Post Andy G

A bit late coming to this...

I like vibrato that is musical, natural, tasteful, controlled and above all, that fits the song - like a singer or a classical string player (i.e. people who have actually studied vibrato and have accurate pitch perception and developed ears). It can vary in width, speed, phrasing and also the shape of the oscillation curve - it doesn't always have to look like a pure sine wave, but for me it has to fit the song, whether it's an uptempo barnstormer or a ballad. 

Good vibrato is synchronised to the tempo of the song, although whatever beat subdivisions is used to phrase it can vary (it might be quarter notes, triplets, 8th notes, 16ths etc. or even played with swing) - and it's something that is connected to the music that you're playing over - not just some stock procedure that you switch on that has no relevance to the music, like being out of time, uncontrolled and off-key pitches, super-fast vibrato that sounds like you're getting electrocuted, or really unnaturally slow and so wide that you're torturing the listener with a different upper pitch that is totally dissonant and then dwelling on it - especially when applied to a non-bent target note, as the upper (non-diatonic) pitch is what ends up perceived as the target pitch! I can't bear to listen to that! :doh:
 
There are SOOO many different ways to use vibrato though - how vibrato it's brought in, starting narrower and then opening up wider but with perfect control, like a good singer might do. And like many things, it's good to know when NOT to add vibrato to contrast with the notes that DO have it. The good stuff adapts to the music and in the hands of a great player it's a thing of beauty. There aren't all that many players in rock who have that level of expression unfortunately. Sadly, I think a lot of players add vibrato to compensate for an inability to bend in tune. I think that's a double-edged sword though, as if you can't bend a note and hold it pitch-perfect, you haven't developed your ears enough. And if you mask that with vibrato on everything, you're never GOING to develop your ears! And also a lot of players have a standard vibrato that they apply to everything. Even if it's nice, if it's always the same, it's not being expressive. And I know a lot of guys just don't even think about vibrato. They do it because they know on some level that it's required, but they're not paying attention to what they're actually doing - it's just "add wiggle here", rather than having total control of the pitch and timing of each bend/release and making it match the music and using vibrato to add a human element of expression to a note.

Folks that do the good stuff - Gary Moore is perhaps my favourite, or Yngwie in the days when he gave a shit, his vibrato was off-the-charts good. Steve Lukather is also brilliant, as is Steve Vai.
 
 
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Tatosh Guitar
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Location: Mexico

Re: best/favorite vibrato?

Post: # 246679Post Tatosh Guitar

Wow Andy... what a great post! You got me thinking a couple things. I have been thinking about vibrato a lot lately, and you just gave me a lot of food for thought. Oh well... back to the drawing board!
Haffner
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Re: best/favorite vibrato?

Post: # 246686Post Haffner

Gary and Yngwie for sure. I also love Tony Iommi and Angus Young's, a whole lot...70s Ace Frehley. Kossoff. Schenker absolutely.

But for sheer OTT bombast and width, Uli Jon Roth takes it for me. It looks so effortless. I mean, it's sometimes more than a bit overstated, but that's one of the things I love about it.
Andy G
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Joined: Mon Dec 06, 2004 10:03 pm

Re: best/favorite vibrato?

Post: # 246696Post Andy G

Tatosh wrote:Sat Jan 03, 1970 8:31 pm Wow Andy... what a great post! You got me thinking a couple things. I have been thinking about vibrato a lot lately, and you just gave me a lot of food for thought. Oh well... back to the drawing board!


 
I'm really glad you found it useful! Vibrato is such a subjective thing, but I think that there's a real problem that there are some popular players out there who have really shit vibrato. If a fan idolises them (for whatever spurious reasons), and doesn't know any better, they end up thinking this is what constitutes "great vibrato" (because their idol can do no wrong) and so they wean themselves onto shit. Eventually it becomes endemic. It's really difficult to teach people who can't hear the difference between good and shite!

At the end of the day, we should do the stuff we enjoy, but I do try to steer students away from vibrato styles that are divisive if I can. If significant numbers of people dislike somebody's vibrato, there's a real reason for it (even if you can't hear it yourself). It doesn't matter how much you love it, if you copy their style, those folks won't like your vibrato either. And yes, of course you should do whatever YOU want to do... but if you want others to like it, I would question the wisdom of copying somebody that a lot of folks can't stand! And there are some guys who are pretty universally admired for their vibrato - so go with them!! 

But let's be honest - most people listening don't really care that much and really can't tell the difference anyway! :D
 
 
eduardoritos
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Re: best/favorite vibrato?

Post: # 246702Post eduardoritos

From time to time, I'm tempted by the idea of doing some vid on vibrato.
But I'm lazy and shy to make that kind of thing.

What I want to say in order to learn vibrato is: try to copy other player's vibrato in the oposite way they're playing. So, copy a finger vibrato with trem or slide; copy slide and trem vibrato with fingers.
It's imposible to duplicate BUT that way, you're forced to figure how to do it and you'll learn a lot.
 
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Duojett71
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Re: best/favorite vibrato?

Post: # 246777Post Duojett71

My favorite vibrato's of all time are pretty much in line with my favorite guitarists:

Brian Robertson-Probably one of the most natural sounding guitar players of all time. His vibrato just comes off as and extension of his natural talent. Lemmy in his book 'White Line Fever' said the same thing about Robertson's ability.....that he was one of the most natural sounding guitar players he ever heard. I think that is why Robertson is tied for my #1 favorite player of all time. He had a soulfulness that was only matched by the fire in his playing. As great as the Thin Lizzy albums 'Black Rose', 'Chinatown' and 'Thunder And Lightning' are....there was a void in Lizzy when he left...especially live. His vibrato was the first I ever latched onto and took notice of when I started playing guitar. 

Adrian Smith-Very similar to Robertson in many ways...with maybe a little bit of Schenker thrown in. Smith's vibrato is one of the main reasons I always preferred him over Murray....and Murray is great. There was always more grit to Smith as a player and I liked the way he dug in more. He attacked the guitar more. His vibrato made him one of the classiest players in Heavy Metal in my opinion. 

Michael Schenker-Probably one of the best vibratos in hard rock and metal. It's just one of his many fine attributes as a lead guitar player. 

John Norum-He took a lot obviously from Schenker and Gary Moore. Musically he may have sounded more like Gary Moore but I thought as a lead player there was an equal amount of Schenker. I also see the Blackmore influence early on in the Europe stuff. I also think with extremely great technical ability that surpassed his influences and combined that with his own thing. His vibrato is just another aspect of how great he is. Of active players he and Smith are my favorites. John is another player who I really latched on to when I first started playing. 

Gary Moore-His hard rock/metal era was so good. Gary even though at times could be sloppy(and not in a bad way) had some serious chops and his vibrato was pretty sick. Another natural. Gary had a lot of fire in his solos especially from Dirty Fingers through Victims of the Future.

David Gilmour-I think his soulfulness speaks through his vibrato. The king of feel and class as a lead guitarist

So many other guitar players I love who have very nice vibrato but these are the ones that stand out to me
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