Songs with GREAT vibrato licks

PolarityMan

I like mental wide slow vibrato, it's like it makes the note or bend more tense and dissonant which allows for a more satisfying resolution when you come off it.

I'm sure the subtle stuff is harder but it's prob lost in the mix live anyways.

mixolyd

Forgive me for being ignorant of Slash - I've always hated GNR so my exposure to Slash is limited to once having to learn the solo to Sweet Child and noticing that he would always let the bent notes sing instead of applying vibrato.  To me that sticks out as a style signifier of his and a way of avoiding sounding too bluesy.  Of course I knew that he used butterfly vibrato because everybody in rock does but not having listened to him I didn't realise that he made a point of really making it pay on the wound strings.  There is something new for me to discover here - I've been doing vibrato on the wound strings instinctively for years but have never paid attention to anyone who made a craft of it.

I don't think you can blame me for not hearing some low vibrato in that Reckless Life video: the SQ is absolutely abominable with a low end that sounds like tuned mud.  You didn't specify and time or section but near the start I can hear a riff that ends F sharp to G sharp (he's tuned down a half step it seems).  Maybe that F sharp (g on his guitar) has vibrato on it or maybe it's just bent into a muted pulloff before the G sharp note but that distinction can't be heard clearly on that video, at least not on the speakers I'm using.  Yesterday I was listening using my ipad speakers and I couldn't even hear the bend on them.  Maybe it's a bend-release-bend which to me would be somewhere between a bend and vibrato - a double bend I guess.  

Wide, fast AND subtle?  This is one of those "pick any two" situations surely - you can't have all three unless you're turning the volume down?

I tried listening to the studio version but that has a totally different guitar part.

That Cult song does sound anaemic..though the vibrato is on the c note on the a string.

Ok I just looked up youtube and learned the Paradise City riff.  It's much easier to see what he's doing if I pick up the guitar and figure it out as the choice of fingering and the more subtle little bits of vibrato become apparent automatically.

This riff has the standard butterfly vibrato on the g string, he avoids vibrato on the bent note on the g string then uses it at the end of the riff.  I'd instinctively be playing vibrato on the b string (b note for me so I guess it's a c as he plays it) following the two bends there but he doesn't, instead saving it for the end of the last go-round of the riff where he puts in two bends that turn into an accelerating vibrato.

I noticed an accelerating vibrato at the end of the Night Train solo also - I've been on the lookout for that trick as it's next on my list to learn now that I'be gotten some good speed but I wasn't sure who actually made much use of it.

Ok now I've done Slash lesson one I'll say this - his stylistic trait is that he withholds obvious vibrato so that when he does use it later it will be more meaningful.

If a GNR live video existed with only the Slash bits that would be great.

mixolyd

Another thing to note is that the choice of how much vibrato you habitually use plays into how you usually play.  If you have a decent amount of gain you can let sustained notes sing alot but with less gain they often need a little wiggle to keep them going.  I play unplugged most of the time these days so I put vibrato on high notes, low notes, chords, double stops - anything that sustains or needs emphasis and can be "grabbed".  What I really need is a bigsby so I can put a little bit on open stringed and barred stuff too.

Sambostar

I've gone off Slash to be honest as well, have done for decades, but he demonstrates a lot of 70's rock guitar players in one so it's convenient.   Why do you feel you have to play vibrato to a metronome?  I like the independent feel of things, makes everyone's interpretations different eh and interesting.

mixolyd

Practicing vibrato to a metronome has allowed me to go from only being able to do it slowly (as I have for decades) to be close to the super fast Green/Kirwan style in just a few weeks. If you want to build speed and strength in any area you do progressive training - no reason vibrato should be any different and no reason to take years doing it. Yes different styles makes it more interesting and more musically useful, that's one reason why I'm now looking at different players' riffs: there's no point having the speed and strength if all you can do is that one exercise.

viz

Hi Mixolyd - well if that's the method that's worked for you then great. I shouldn't have put it down. I've just found that vibrato is a very easy technique once you know how to actually DO it, and perhaps because I learned how to do it on the violin as a small child, progressive build-up has never been necessary or desirable. And maybe it's also because I favour a speed that is well within the speed that I could do if I wanted.

But if you've found you hit against a physical barrier to speed and that progressive training helped you overcome it then that's wonderful - fair play to your method, and apols!

stratman3142

mixolyd said:

....What I really need is a bigsby so I can put a little bit on open stringed and barred stuff too.

I like to combine finger vibrato with whammy bar vibrato. David Gilmour is a good example of a player that combines finger vibrato with whammy bar vibrato, but obviously on a Strat.

It took me well over a year to develop a half decent finger vibrato, mainly because I was trying to emulate Paul Kossoff's playing at the time and went to see Free a few times. In those days there weren't the videos there are now and, if I heard a player with vibrato, I used to stand at the front of the stage and try to figure out what was going on. At one point I thought it was achieved by shaking the guitar neck and used to violently shake my guitar to try to get the effect.

I still work at my vibrato now. Your regime sounds quite interesting, I've never tried that approach.

Bucket

My old guitar teacher told me "Watch Zakk Wylde. Imitate."

(2:25)

But then here he is, and his vibrato was fucking incredible (as was everything else about his technique, remarkable player). See 3:15.

I fucking love Guthrie's vibrato too. Really really fast and forceful.

Those are probably my main vibrato influences... here's my own, for comparison.

xSkarloey

There are lots of good examples here, but my personal 'gold standard' for vibrato will always be I think Paul Kossoff.

There are lots of fine example on record, all of which display the amount of expression and control he could muster. I've read archive interviews with him and he readily admitted that this level of control took many, many hours of practice and playing.

Fire and Water by Free is a great album to listen to for its own sake, but contains some of his finest playing.

ChrisMusic

I'll just leave this here.....

Duration 7:16

One of the best guitar performances, and one of the most emotional instrumentals, of all time, IMHO.

It is ALL about feel, and learning technique to allow that "inner connection" to flow.

Becoming one with the instrument and being "in the zone" is one of the most delicious and spiritual experiences in life.

Sharing that with others is priceless.

Enough technique here to keep any of us working on for a lifetime.