IN THE WOODSHED
Combining vibrato with different string bends can be tricky, so in this extensive fretting-hand workout Charlie Griffiths shows you how.
Charlie Griffiths continues to help you hone your general guitar skills. This month: applying vibrato to one, two and three-fret bends!
In this lesson we will look at adding vibrato to bends using a variety of pitches, from semitones, to tones and minor 3rds. There are many factors to consider here, from pitching accuracy to finger strength and also the speed and width of the vibrato.
Whenever you are bending or adding vibrato, finger strength is a big contributing factor to pitching accuracy; especially when performing large bends such as minor 3rds. The main thing to remember is that the fingers themselves do not push the strings, but the forearm and wrist muscles do. Use your fingers to lock on to the string, and rest the side of your first finger knuckle on the underside of the neck; this will act as the pivot point around which your hand moves. Twist your wrist as if you are turning a door knob and this will lever the string up by using the power of your forearm muscles and take the strain away from your much weaker fingers.
Examples 1 and 2 are designed to develop your string bending using various fingers. Example 1 focuses on bending semitones, tones and minor 3rds with your third and fourth fingers, while Example 2 puts the spotlight on your first finger. Remember to keep your fingers locked in position to keep a strong grip on the string and use your wrist and forearm to lever the string up.
Once you have trained your fingers and your ears to bend the strings accurately it is time to move on to Example 3, which puts semitone and tone bends into the context of a lick. When adding vibrato to a bend the best approach is to dip the string under the pitch slightly, then back up to it (it doesn’t want to go right back down as this sounds unnatural).
Example 4 will further test your pitching as it requires you to hit minor 3rds, tones and semitones precisely in order to play a melody. Keep an eye on how far you need to bend the string to reach each pitch. Get a feel for how each bend feels in order to ingrain it. This will be particularly useful when playing the pre-bends in Example 5. With pre-bend, you need to be sure that the string is in the correct position before you pick it. This is a fantastic way of testing your sense of how far to move the string for a particular pitch bend.
Practise each example slowly and accurately before playing along with the backing tracks.
RememBeR ThAT The fINGeRs ThemseLves do NoT push The sTRINGs, BuT The foReARm ANd WRIsT muscLes do
NEXT MONTH Charlie looks at incorporating fretting-hand hammer-ons into your licks