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Vibrato Tremolo and guitar playing | |
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On slower songs or in guitar solos, which have very slow or long notes, a little touch of vibrato or tremolo can do wonders for your guitar part and the song. The basic idea of both the vibrato and tremolo technique is both the changing pitch and a rhythm of the pitch going up and down. This article will only look at the tremolo and vibrato technique and using it in a song. Future articles will discuss the techniques vibrato and tremolo and how to play them on guitar.
Vibrato is on of the most difficult techniques when playing guitar. Not only is it very difficult to learn the quite unnatural hand movement it can also be very difficult to fit it in with the music or the song. While other guitar techniques usually are technical or more rhythmically this guitar technique is very much about feel.
When listening to a good guitarist you should be able to notice a few things. Fist of all the vibrato is not always the same, not even during the same song. And secondly, the way the rhythm of the vibrato changes.
So the first thing you want to experiment with is the width of the vibrato. You probably will notice that a wider vibrato sounds more aggressive and a less width vibrato is more subtle. This is one of the first differences that should make vibrato more interesting. Like for example you can use the more subtle vibrato during the intro of the song. And as soon as the song or guitar solo goes to a climax you can start widening your vibrato and really have a great development of the guitar part in the song.
Changing the speed or rhythm of the vibrato is a very tricky part. It's a little too easy just to simply play along with the basic rhythm of the songs and start vibrating the notes in eights for example. Of course this works very well for some songs or parts. Vibrato on guitar can be more than that if you don't use the rhythm of the song as your guide. So start trying to vibrate at different speeds and see what you can come up with.
One of the even more difficult techniques is changing both the speed and width of the vibrato while playing just one note. And this is the part that is really really about feel. For example you can start out with a note vibrating slowly and slowly start increasing your width of the vibrato. Or start with a very width vibrato and with the note volume fading also fade your vibrato.
You can do the same thing with the speed of the vibrato of course. Start fast and slow down or the other way around.
But the most difficult is using both at once on your guitar. But there is something you have to watch out for. Usually most guitarists will use both speed and width the same way. Like for example when using a faster vibrato or increasing the speed of the vibrato they will also use a wider vibrato. Although this may be very natural for many guitarists it is nothing something that has to be that way at all. Try to see both width and speed as independent and treat them as such. So for instance you can start with a fast and not so width vibrato and end with a slower exaggerated vibrato. Enough to experiment with I'd say.
Although not very common, vibrato can also be applied to chords instead of just only single notes. It's much more difficult but then again it is so much fun trying to break and abuse your fingers while trying.
Apart from the tremolo effects you will find in effect pedals and processors many electric guitars come with a tremolo bar. There are basically two types of tremolo systems, floating tremolo systems and tremolo systems that can only go one way (down). The floating tremolo system is called floating because it rests on the two pints attached on the body but isn't in contact with it itself. It is balanced floating above the body by the tension of the strings on one side and usually two or three springs on the other side. The great thing about floating tremolos is that they can go up or down, which means you can let the pitch go up or down.
The tremolo systems that can only go one way are more attached and closer to the body which mean they can't bend up and get a higher pitch much, if any at all.
Many guitars come with a tremolo systems but very few guitarist use it. But not without reason.
One of the biggest problems many guitarist have with tremolo is tuning problems not only before they start playing but also during playing their guitar. Although most of the problems can be solved by setting up the guitar the right way and some tuning tricks there still will be some tuning problems when playing that are just a part of tremolo use.
This would be enough to write a column or a even a book about. So I'll keep this short for now. While vibrato is a very hard to learn technique for guitarists grabbing and shaking a tremolo arm (or whammy bar) usually isn't. But of course good use is. So keep in mind that starting out with just very subtle tremolo use is always a good idea.
There are also some other techniques to make long notes and chords more interesting. They are not really well known techniques but you probably have seen a guitarist do it one time or the other.
Yes that's right, shake that guitar. While you are shaking the guitar by either the neck or the body or both you will get a kind of tremolo effect. Don't shake it too hard if you have a more delicate or old guitar, you might damage the neck. You can even exaggerate this effect by holding you hand on the top of the body and bending the neck a little in the opposite direction with your other hand. Again be very, very careful if you don't know what you are doing or if you are not sure if your guitar can't take it. So if you do not want to take the risk of damaging your guitar, don't do it!
This technique is great for metal string acoustic guitars or electric guitars without a tremolo system. This way you can still get a little of the tremolo effect to make your playing more interesting.
Another way of creating a kind of tremolo is by pushing down the guitar strings at the top of the guitar either behind the nut or between the nut and your fingers holding the strings by using your right hand.
When you are doing it behind the nut there is usually enough room to push the strings down and create a kind of upward tremolo or vibrato. This works very well for open strings on which you normally can't apply vibrato.
When you are trying to do it behind you fingers holding the strings and between the nut there usually isn't that much space because some one thought there should be a fretboard on the guitar. But no problem, you can always move it up or down just like a normal vibrato or bend. This technique may seem a little strange but you can get some really interesting sounds out of your guitar. Like for example you can try to only vibrate two notes out of a complete chord or in a way move up one note with this kind of vibrato/bend/tremolo technique.