I have a problem applying vibrato to string bends when I am pushing the string up. When I am pulling the string down I have no issue and on a unbent note I have no issue at all. I have spent a good amount of time practicing and really working on this but I just can't seem to get it just right, I always lose the correct pitch of the note when attempting to apply vibrato.
As a work around I slide up to the "correct" note and play it as normal.
Has anyone else suffered from this? I know hand strength has something to do with this but I would have hoped that practice and changing gauge strings would have helped but it doesn't seem to have done.
Apparently I read Robben Ford suffers this also and I have tried to hear it in his playing but I feel I could be trying to excuse my inability here.
Any advice?
Comments
I wonder if it would be easier on lighter gauge strings? Put 9s on a guitar you don't use much, see if you can do it on that, then go back to your usual guitar and try it.
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I have tried changing strings but I may go back to a really light set. Good advice.
My playing in general is not grounded in good technique but one area I have made a conscious effort to work on over the last month or two is my vibrato. I am not a very fast player so I try to do what I can with the notes I do play.
I have worked on slowing my vibrato right down and speeding it up to get a nice wide Angus type of sound. I am not saying I have mastered it but it's improving but the string bend thing? It just sounds horrible to my ears, not controlled at all.
Good advice with the thumb over the top, I will make a real effort to keep it there.
The type of music I play just sounds better with this technique nailed so I need to keep at it.
It's funny because I have played for years but I've never been overtly concerned with technique. I have always just been happy to play. As I now start trying to build up my technique I find I am having to really start at the beginning and take baby steps.
I'm not an expert and all the above advice is good. I made the mistake of buying Let There Be Rock again (had it on vinyl when it first came out). So having tried to replicate it my advice is...
1 Dont try to copy Angus or Kossoff but develop your own style (YMMV)
2 Mine is to bend up a semi tone until you hit the note and then gradually add some vibrato. As I practice/get used to it I add more wobble.
3 I#ve not done this in public yet I am getting used to it/muscle memory etc
4 I also vary it it by using the classical/side to side vibrato on unbent notes (but I've been playing fretless and double bass for some time.
5 Keep going.
What I can't seem to make work is the way he bends and adds vibrato. He seems to let go of the next and shake from his elbow almost.
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Gurthie's technique demonstrates the method is pointed out in my previous post..
bending and vibrato come from a rotation of the wrist
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
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Exactly. It reminds me of one of those executive toy stainless steel galloping horses that rock on a plinth. Clapton's method of letting go of the neck and pulling down almost from the elbow is really odd and uncontrollable, it reminds me of someone bouncing on a tightrope. I like doing Vai's method, it reminds me of how my dentist used to tell me to brush my teeth.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.