Vibrato speed and width

Guitar Bob asks: Yo Cyberfret Dude! Aren't you finished yet?

Now that you know how to add vibrato to your notes, there is two other important things to consider. How fast should my vibrato be? How wide should my vibrato be? The answers to these questions will really depend on the type and feel of a particular song. You have to use your experience and taste to make that determination. But there are some things that you can practice to give you the widest possible vibrato options.

When I first started practicing vibrato, I came up with this list of values that I could applied to vibrato. There are those players have a one dimensional vibrato, it sound the same all the time. Then there are those who consciously or unconsciously use different speeds and widths of vibrato to create more depth and feeling in their playing.

In addition to playing the general speeds listed above, you could also play vibrato with specific rhythms in relationship to the beat. Listen to the 3 examples below.

8th notes (2 per beat) (50K) get realplayer

8th note triplets (3 per beat) (41K) get realplayer

16th notes (4 per beat) (36K) get realplayer

These are things that you may instinctively put into your playing. But if you keep them in mind as you are playing vibrato, you will add a whole new layer of expression possibilities to the notes that you play.

Page 5, bending with vibrato

Page 1, Intro to vibrato for guitar