How To Use Guitar Double Stops With Vibrato To Play Intense & Expressive Licks
Tired of playing the same blues guitar double stops that sound just like the same thing everyone else plays?
Solution:
Combine double stops on guitar together with vibrato.
This combination makes your guitar playing sound amazingly expressive, intense and unique.
Plus, it's not very hard to do.
Learn how to combine guitar double stops with vibrato by watching this video:Click on the video to begin watching it.
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Use the approach in the video to make your guitar double stops sound really intense and badass!
Now that you know a cool new way to play guitar double stops with vibrato, it's time to learn more ways to improve your lead guitar playing.
Use the following tips to improve your lead guitar licks and creativity:
Tip #1: How To Practice Making Double Stop Guitar Licks Sound Expressive
Double stop guitar licks don't sound very creative or expressive?
Stay away from making the common mistake of trying to memorize tons of new licks or add tons of notes to your double stops. Instead, focus on becoming more expressive with what you already know.
Try this out:
- Improvise a short double stop guitar lick using a pattern you already know.
- For several minutes, play this phrase in as many different ways as possible to create as much expression and variety as possible.
For example, try integrating new techniques into the lick, hoding some notes longer or shorter, changing the rhythm, changing how you apply vibrato, etc.
- Next, try this same process with another lick or by adding just one or two notes to your current phrase.
This helps you to train your double stops creativity and expression very effectively. This is how you fundamentally become a more expressive lead guitarist versus simply memorizing new licks.
Of course, you are free to think of more ways to practice this skill than just this one exercise.
Try to think of additional creative ways to practice double stops on guitar to become more creative.
For example, pay attention to how you feel when you play a guitar double stop in a certain manner several times.
This helps you attach an emotional memory to the technique and style you used to play it, making it easier to remember when you are improvising during a solo.
Tip #2: How To Make Your Guitar Vibrato Sound Pro
One of the biggest issues that guitar players make while playing solos and licks is not using enough vibrato or using a very narrow and fast vibrato. Using narrow and fast vibrato sounds very similar to how B.B. King plays, but outside of that context you might sound like you are nervous while playing or like there is a buzzing insect nearby.
Here is what to do in order to make your guitar vibrato and scales sound much more expressive and unique:
Listen to the players from all kinds of musical genres who have top-tier vibrato and pay attention to how they phrase with it.
Sometimes we get so used to the sound of our playing that we stop thinking of new ways to play creatively.
It’s easier to improve your vibrato when you can hear the difference between how your playing sounds now and how pro players sound when they use theirs. Use their style as inspiration. Once you get vibrato technique mastered, apply it when you practice anything on guitar.
For instance, practice it with scales, arpeggios, double stops, etc.
This helps it become more natural sounding whenever you use it during a guitar solo or lick. Additionally, focus on making your vibrato be consistently in-tune and clean (using both hands to eliminate excess string noise).
Tip #3: Improve Your Lead Guitar Skills With A Teacher
Every guitar player comes to a point where they aren't making progress as fast as they want.
Whether you play blues guitar, rock, metal, jazz or any other style - every guitarist benefits by taking lessons with a teacher rather than learning by themselves.
Learning to get better at guitar on your own makes the process full of trial-and-error, which can become tedious and demotivating over time rather than enjoyable and fun. This is exactly why I strongly recommend all guitarists take lessons with an experienced guitar teacher - whether you are a blues guitarist, rock guitarist or any other style of guitarist.
This is very essential for helping you make accelerated progress, because a great guitar teacher is effective at getting you to notice where you are overlooking mistakes so you can fix any bad habits and gain new knowledge about playing guitar that you may not have heard about if you learned exclusively by yourself.
Not only does this make learning about guitar more exciting, it makes it a lot less stressful. You become a well-rounded guitar player and musician in no time.
When you are all set to achieve a new standard of skill in your guitar playing, find a teacher to work with. Doing this gets you results like what my students got:
“When I first heard about Tom Hess, I saw that he was a teacher that was very dedicated and serious about it, and that drew me in immediately. That this is a guy that has a plan, has a goal and really if you’re serious about learning guitar, this guy is equally as serious in a way. So it resonated with me straight away.”
I started out just learning by myself and as many others I got stuck. I had a few issues I wanted to get by, but when I met Tom and talked with him and started lessons with him, he opened up a whole new world of possibilities of what guitar playing can be.
I feel very grateful that I found lessons from Tom since I then did what worked from the very beginning. Many guitarists I see that played way longer than I did, they have build up many bad habits. That from the very start, there was clear instruction of how to practice correctly. You build the ability for high speed and whatever you want from the very beginning and you don’t waste time doing inefficient things. So I’m very grateful that I did that, and now I really feel I am able to reach whatever level I want.
The reasons why I think I feel so motivated all the time is because I know that the thing I’m working on is relevant for me and it’s exactly the direct thing I need to get.
The forum just kicks ass. The people in the forum - it’s just like unconditional help all the time. They love to help out, and you also get very inspired by seeing someone just really getting speed really quick and then you say if he can do it, I can do it. It works on the mental side of being a guitarist and that of course that’s the most important thing. Just being around other musicians like that, is just you learn so much faster, is so much less frustration when you can see that all the people are having the same issues that you do, not anything special or anything. It’s just part of learning process, so it kicks ass.
Magnus Gautestad, Norway
“Tom was my first guitar teacher ever. I started online guitar lessons a couple of years ago and it’s what I’ve been looking for. Someone who can really help me get what I want.”
Tom really puts it back on me to decide what I want and do what I need to do to get that. That’s what so many people need when they need help - they need to know how to help themselves.
There’s abundant resources. You can always get more information. You can always get more help, especially from other people, other students, members on the forum... Most of all, it’s an opportunity for me to help myself. That’s the goal.
When I pick up something that I haven’t played for a long time with my new technique... wow, it feels different. There are plenty of songs (I’ve always played in a cover band, so I know tons of songs). There are songs I haven’t played for 5, 10, 15, 20 years... and if I pulled them up and played them, they would still feel the same way they did back them. But now, if I pull up and play a song I haven’t played in forever – Oh my God, wow! My hands do this now.
Rob Hiemstra, Toronto, Canada
“You’re dealing with one of the best guitar teachers in the world, maybe the best and you can’t get that just anywhere in the world.”
Tom is so goal focused, and I hadn’t even thought of that, it changed the way I thought of things. Tom makes you come up with musical goals and works towards fulfilling those goals. You have something to focus on, the lessons are based on meeting those goals. You’re getting better, you can see how you’re getting better and then you build new goals after that. You see the growth and development as opposed to just getting a little better at a certain technique. You’re actually developing.
Mike Larson, Milwaukee, USA
Learning to play killer double stops with vibrato feels awesome, but there is much more to becoming a killer guitar player than this. Get started improving your guitar playing fast by taking guitar lessons - Click the green "Start Now" button below.