Tighten Up Your Blues: #2 Vibrato

Tighten Up Your Blues is a weekly video guitar lesson series by longtime TrueFire educator Jeff McErlain. In this series, Jeff will focus on nuance and all the finer points of touch, feel, and inflection in blues guitar playing. Be sure to subscribe!

Video Guitar Lesson

Vibrato is one of the most important techniques we have in our bag as players. I simply cannot understate the importance of it. Listen to Itzhak Perlman perform the Bach Chaconne and imagine those other worldly notes without vibrato. We can’t, it is the vibrato that add so much of the passion to the performance, it would be unlistenable without it. Imagine BB King without vibrato! I think you get the point!

What we do need to do is practice vibrato with intent. You must spend time and focus on it solely, ask yourself “What am I trying to convey musically? Excitement? Sadness? Goodtimes?” Vibrato can convey all of those things if used properly and if you have total control over it. I find many players overlook this huge element of playing. I know I didn’t play any attention to it until my college roommate called me out on it and I am eternally grateful to him for it. Good vibrato is one of the key elements I look for in a player, if it isn’t happening, I loose interest, if it is, I’m hooked.

Tighten Up Your Blues is a weekly video guitar lesson series by longtime TrueFire educator Jeff McErlain. In this series, Jeff will focus on nuance and all the finer points of touch, feel, and inflection in blues guitar playing. Be sure to subscribe!