[Terje]

These are my personal thoughts on my vibrato and the players I've been inspired by.

I like it when it's rather wide. More or less one fret in width. It goes from the note and down, most of the time. If I want more tension I may also go a little above the note. It's not so fast, but not too slow. If it's too slow it'll be way to deliberate. The type of vibratoe I'm talking about is very much a throwing thing (as Bob Brozman puts it). You use the weight of the slide and keep the hand and fingers as relaxed as possible.

Even though you need to first establish the note I do like it when the vibrato starts more or less right away as you hit the note, and that it's full right away too. This makes for a fatter sound. Tampa Red taught me this as I listened to recordings of his vibrato. It's like it's always there, he just turns it off fromo time to time.

[Ricochet]

That's similar to my approach, but I tend to use a much narrower range most of the time, say 1/4-1/2 fret.

[allthumbs]

hi terje. A little off topic but, I thought you might get a chuckle from this. Years ago I went into a little hole in the wall record store.My then scruffy self went up to the equaly scruffy sales guy and said "hey man yah got any Tampa Red?". He looked around the store and then whispered back to me " no man, I only have my own stash". I guess he thought Tampa Red was right up there with Acapolco Gold. I laughed till it hurt.
allthumbs

[Ricochet]

[manwithaplan]

I use a particular vibrato when I feel it is right. For example during a very slow song with a softer aproach I tend to use a very wide vibrato (maybe one fret distance) During an upbeat song I tend to use a very small vibrato but I am always trying to mimic the sound of a sitar at some point.

[allthumbs]

I saw a video clip describing bonnie raitts vibrato. She does a 1 fret spread, fairly slow with no damping behind the slide. She said she thought the overtones gave her a fatter sound.
I tend to do what the tune needs. I heard a neat trick for adding expresion to your vibrato. It is realy for finger vibe but, should work for slide.This guys sax teacher told him most people tend to do vibrato on the beat so it is very uniform. He told the guy to do the vibrato six times so it breaks out of the beat. He found applied to his guitar, it realy worked well but was realy hard to break from the more normal vibrato duration.It is worth a try.Let me know what you think.
allthumbs

[LightninBoy]

Originally Posted by allthumbs

I heard a neat trick for adding expresion to your vibrato. It is realy for finger vibe but, should work for slide.This guys sax teacher told him most people tend to do vibrato on the beat so it is very uniform. He told the guy to do the vibrato six times so it breaks out of the beat. He found applied to his guitar, it realy worked well but was realy hard to break from the more normal vibrato duration.It is worth a try.Let me know what you think.
allthumbs

Thats interesting allthumbs, it does work well.

IMO, vibrato is your main meal with slide.
Its important to have a few different techniques.
ie; wide n slow-wide n fast- short n fast- short n slow-smooth- aggressive, etc etc. (Just don't go too sharp of the note, that'll sound dissonant). They all add emotion to the "vocal" quality of slide.

Blind Willie Johnson has an etheral sounding vibrato that I've been trying to emulate for years.


One trick to getting your vibrato smooth is by checking yourself out in the mirror. Some guys look like they're having an epileptic fit, but don't realise it. Eyes can help as well as ears.
(Just don't let any one catch you doing this, they won't believe your practising, they'll think your vain!).

[zak]

Originally Posted by LightninBoy

Blind Willie Johnson has an etheral sounding vibrato that I've been trying to emulate for years.

I think one of the reasons he sounds that way is because it is highly likely he played with a pocketknife or some such other object held in his hand as opposed to wearing a slide on his finger. I have videos of Mance Lipscomb playing this way and he sounds eerily like Blind Willie Johnson at times.

I was actually thinking about this today because I was recording a Blind Willie Johnson tune this afternoon. It's a lot easier for me to get that strange sounding vibrato that way, but it's pretty hard to get any degree of accuracy!

[Kirk Lorange]

If I'm holding a long note, I tend to start slow and wide and finish fater and narrower. I imagine I'm drawing a circle on the string with my slide, so it's not so much a back and forth motion as a circular motion. I find that it keeps generating the note, as there is a up-down component to the circle which acts like a violin bow on the strings.