TeChnique FoCus

Two of the cornerstones of Gilmour’s lead style are his finger vibrato and string bending. His technique and approach is fairly blues orientated and the sounds used range from sparkling clean to full-on overdrive. The key to a good finger vibrato is consistency of width and rate. Gilmour uses a soulful vibrato that is most characteristically of a medium width and rate. He adds this finger vibrato to normally fretted notes as well as notes played with string bending. He also often adds vibrato to string bends by wobbling the whammy bar and this provides a soulful vocal quality to the sound. Gilmour is a masterful string bender and often includes large bends in his solos. One of his signature bending techniques is the compound bend in which a target tone is bent up to and then exceeded by a higher note. He also often uses the classic blues trick of bending all the minor thirds in the scale slightly sharp. These quarter-tone bends help the notes fit and this adds a lovely bluesy flavour. If you combine these finger vibrato and bending styles the results will immediately begin to sound a lot more ‘Gilmour’.