How To Make Your Guitar Vibrato Technique Sound 100% Pro


Want to make your licks sound like expressive musical ideas using top-tier guitar vibrato technique?

Vibrato is instrumental for creating tons of expressive emotion on guitar...

...but many guitarists unintentionally ruin their licks by making one of several common guitar vibrato mistakes.

Fixing these mistakes keeps your guitar vibrato sounding great so your guitar playing has tons of feeling and sounds 100% pro.

Good news is:

It doesn't take a very long time to develop killer vibrato when you know what to practice and which mistakes to look out for.

Learn what you need to do right now to make your guitar vibrato sound perfect by watching the video below:

Click on the video to begin watching it.

 

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Integrate what you learned in the video by following these tips and working on your guitar vibrato technique daily:
 
Strive To Always Keep Your Guitar Vibrato In Tune

Playing with vibrato out of tune is the quickest way to ruin your guitar licks and solos.

Why?

Simple.

It makes your guitar playing sound amateur, "off" or just sloppy.

How do you know if your guitar vibrato is in tune?

Answer:

You do not stop anywhere in between the original pitch and your intended target pitch while bending the string/ applying the technique. This applies when you are either returning to the original pitch or on the way to the target pitch.

Make sure your vibrato stays in tune by picking the target pitch first as shown in the video.

Next, pick the string and bend it to match the target pitch. Eventually, bring everything together so you don't even need to prepare to bend to the target pitch.


Use A Creative Mix Of Different Guitar Vibrato Approaches

There are many creative ways to use guitar vibrato technique. Learning how to use vibrato with variety enhances the phrases in your guitar playing and solos.

Don't make the common mistake of only using one or two approaches with this technique.

This is what a lot of players do and it gets old very quickly.

Plus, learning different ways to apply the technique is a lot of fun!

For example, two types of guitar vibrato include:

Wide and fast: Wide refers to the interval distance between the original and target pitch being one step or more. The rate at which you fluctuate between those pitches what fast refers to. This guitar vibrato approach feels very intense and expressive – great for the first or final note in a guitar phrase.

Narrow and medium: This means the vibrato is less than 1 step between the original and target pitch with a rate that is moderately paced. This is great all-around vibrato to use to enhance various notes within a phrase.


Add Drama To Your Bends With Vibrato That Is Delayed

Making your bends sound amazing is simple when you use guitar vibrato. However, you have more creative options to work with than you think...

Bends give you the opportunity to improve the timing of your vibrato for added expression.

What do I mean?

I'll explain.

While bending a string, add vibrato to the note at the highest point of the bend, but do it in the following manner:

Strike the string to articulate the note.

Waiting a moment...

...THEN add vibrato.

I call this approach using “delayed vibrato”, and it sounds very expressive!

…But don’t use it every time. Mix this in with the other approaches you learned above.

Even something as awesome as this can quickly become repetitive if you use it more than once or twice within a phrase. At first, get used to this approach by applying it to the first and/or last note of a lick. Then slowly continue from there to apply it into your overall guitar playing until it feels natural.


Here are some great general idea to keep in mind when soloing and using vibrato:

1. Delay the vibrato while playing emotionally important notes in a phrase.

2. Leave more space in between musical ideas during licks and solos to give yourself time to think of what to play next.

3. Don't play guitar licks and solos by cramming as many notes into them as possible. Allow some notes to just hang there and ring out by themselves - practice using guitar vibrato variations to enhance these notes.
 

Now get quick tips to help you improve your lead guitar playing and integrate them together with vibrato in your practice schedule:

While you play guitar licks and solos, focus on playing high-quality phrases that flow smoothly together.

This works well when you are playing a longer guitar solo that eventually plays a reocurring lick to come back from the break section. The point is that when the solo is over, the listener can still recall how the solo sounded by hearing the main theme you kept coming back to and having it stick out in their minds (due to it being connected to another part of the song outside of the solo).

As examples of what I'm talking about, check out songs by some of your favorite lead guitar players to see how they use types of themes and variations or melody creation in their soloing.

Notice that sometimes although there are a lot of different techniques being used in these songs, yet you can still sing the main melody and identify the track just by hearing it.

To develop your guitar soloing to another level, practice getting good at developing a single phrase before switching to a new phrase - rather than playing every phrase once and constantly trying to reinvent the wheel every few seconds (a common mistake).

Want to get better at playing lead guitar technique fast, clean and consistent? Take guitar lessons - Here is what my students have to say about the results they've receieved from their guitar lessons:

 

 

 


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