I think he just really likes playing guitar...therein lies the secret to his technical proweess

Hey folks,

Here's a quick vid I did of me messing around the Am scale up and down the fretboard. Probably playing a bit faster than is good for me, but I wanted to see how far I could push it (which isn't to say it's fast at all by the standards of this forum, but fast for me). It's a bit scrappy in places, but, you know.... Anyway, I'd welcome any criticism or advice.

I think you've improved quite a bit. It seems you accentuate the notes better which creates rhythms of threes and fours and all that. Your very small and economic fingermotions on the fretting hand looks much better than my hooves trying to make their way across the board. The only direct criticism to get on ASAP would be that vibrato. :-) Do the classical vibrato -- that one that's horizontal -- and hold it much, much longer, and do the vibrato slower. I sit on my sofa and do the 1-2-3-4 exercise up and down where I'll hit a clean 4, wait a bit, and try smooth in a good horizontal vibrato. Do a clean 3, and the same. It's a very relaxing drill, good for starting up or closing down a practice session.

Cliff your left hand has improved a ton woah! Always strive to make sure the left hand is nice loose and relaxed. Once you have the technique down your hand will feel like a butterfly. Also to mirror what Tom is saying, start looking into building a nice controlled vibrato.

Thanks guys!

Joel - to be honest, the left-hand improvement was inspired by your recent vids. Sure, I've known for a long time about lightness of touch and minimal motion, but actually seeing you do it, and how precise and minimal your motion was - well, it came at exactly the right time for me so I set about practicing it as slowly as possible for a couple of weeks. I feel like it's paid of really well so far. At times I do get that butterfly feeling. At other times, I'm still pressing too hard (I can see the strings move on that vid in places). I still need to get that third finger under control, and to try and maintain the minimal motion as I up the speed. But I now feel like I know where I'm going and what I have to practice. (I really need to improve the degree of left-hand motion with legato and sweep picking however.)

Regarding the vibrato - could you guys give me a little help here please? As it stands, is it too fast, too wide, too narrow?

Thanks again for listening and commenting!

Okay so I'm going to mainly talk about the two most common vibrato techniques out. Classical and blues. A classical vibrato will pull the note flat and sharp and is achieved by using a side to side motion (left and right) on the string. A blues vibrato will only pull the note sharp and is achieved by using the thumb as leverage to push the string up and down. Both vibrato techniques will be very useful for you to learn because they're great for different things. I'm not going to get to in depth on the motions for sake of space but I can help you out with the blues motion the most. Now that we've established that, I'll be talking about your vibrato next.

Using Pebber's technique will put your hands in a position where your fingertips are curled in and the thumb is behind the neck, It already lends itself to using a classical, side-to-side, vibrato quite well. BUT if you want to be pulling off vibrato like Petrucci, Wylde, Yngwie, Gilbert, and the like you have to switch your grip to the blues grip and use your thumb as leverage; you won't get that sound otherwise.

From what I see in your video is that you're trying to move the string up and down like a blues vibrato but because your left hand grip hasn't changed, you have little control over it. I suspect that is the reason Tom is telling you to stick to a classical vibrato. And he's right, as long your left hand is in that position stick to a classical vibrato. For me, I've had to learn how to switch my hand quickly to a blues grip and back to Pebber's left hand grip quickly so I could have all options at my disposal.

EDIT: Also thank you for the kind words it means a lot bro :)

Thanks Joel.

Funny you should mention that last sentence: I've just realized I need to work on the exact same thing to be able to switch quickly from scalar runs to bends.

So once I *do* change the grip as you say, should I be looking to slow the vibrato down?

Generally speaking, yes. I believe it was Pebber that gave the advice of practicing vibrato with a metronome, and you can do that with both the classical way of doing vibrato and the blues way. There was a thread on this forum where Ursin put up a really good video regarding vibrato but I can't find it for the life of me >.>

Yes, you should slow it down. Start by slowing it down and perform the horizontal/classical vibrato by moving your wrist/arm (otherwise it becomes a slide.) Use large, large motions to start it off with and do it slow. Hit a clean note and wait a little bit and start the vibrato going on the same note (i.e. you pick once and transition the clean note into a vibrato so you can hear the difference between the two.) I am by no means a vibrato-expert and don't take the following as the be all end all to the classical vibrato: but I often do it without the thumb against the neck.

Here's a video of me doing what I mean, except I can't do it very clean (and I keep my thumb against the neck.) You can do that one 1-2-3-4 up and down the strings. I find the classical vibrato easy to start with. It, however, does not offer as good sustain as a circular vibrato, for example, but I'm a beginner and can live with that while I work on trying to get the vibrato pleasing to the ears.

http://tinypic.com/r/5posgx/5

Thanks both. (I think it was DeltaDiscos and Ursin who suggested using a metronome, but I wasn't really sure what sort of speed.) Tom, thanks for the vid - it's quite a bit slower than I thought to aim for.

You'll find that getting it under control slow and achieving a pleasing relaxed vibrato will let you pick up the speed on it without losing what is the quality of a vibrato - the "vibration" will fit the beat. Here Batio talks a bit about vibrato:

Wise words from Mr. Michaelangelo

FYI this piece isnt really meant for using pick but I cannot insult sarod by loosing the pick

I hope at least one person will experience at least one little iota of enjoyment from it...These little guitar diddys are the only thing positive going for me ATM...other than that though right now...I reside in the valley of unhappiness.

When you get the Sarod going at full swing it's easy to see how it is done; the way your hand looks like it's turning a key. Executing it on my part is a b*itch.
We've have all probably lived more than once in that "Habitat of Unhappiness" before Nick. Keep up the good work.

Seems to me all the great players had the speed and timing down really young were does that leave alot of us

I take solace in that all fast, tight, and technical players I know reached that level in 3-7 years. By way of practicing like madmen. In those videos above, I think te guys had played at least 10 years and practiced seriously, but I could be wrong. Apart from fast and on time, they do have a very sophisticated sense of music, especially at that age. That's one thing that is tremendously much more difficult to accomplish, and what lots of players invest decades into after technically proficient. They don't get any faster, but they become more musical. I don't foresee myself capable of catching up to anybody in that part of playing.

BB King vibrato lesson

Sarod motion for left hand vibrato ftw! I can't believe I didn't think of wording it that way... so much simpler lol.

Edit: We should also be discussing Yngwie here when it comes to vibrato. He has an insanely mean sounding vibrato!

Edit 2: He also does that sarod-like arm motion for his when he's on electric.

Pebber does mention this in a video along with trilling from the arm rotation not the fingers..

Quick practice update. I've been doing the spiders & ladders for about 2 or 3 days, and I'm amazed by how uncoordinated I am. Lots of work to do!

Comments welcome, can't hurt my feelings.

Looking good!

I hate to give advice on this forum - I really suck - but I also hate to see someone post a vid and not get any feedback. So....

One thing I think I noticed is that when you're concentrating on one hand, the technique isn't so good with the other. For example, when you do the open string picking, you have a really tight, focussed picking motion. But then when you're working on the left-hand, the picking hand seems to be moving too much again. Similarly, when you were practicing - I think - three picks per note in a scale, your left hand fell into the blues position with your thumb over the top of the board.

I think maybe if you spent a little time correcting the one hand while working on the other, you might be help get the new habits down more quickly.

"Always strive to make sure the left hand is nice loose and relaxed. Once you have the technique down your hand will feel like a butterfly."

Hey Joel - I had a question about this. I've been increasing my speed somewhat, and have indeed achieved that butterfly feeling. But I've noticed a problem where I can descend a scale quite a bit faster than I can ascending. I think the problem comes down to my left-hand being a little 'lazy' when moving up the scale, like the fingers aren't quite falling in time. To counter this, I find I'm having to emphasize the placement of each individual finger (eg 1st, 2nd then 4th) to ensure they all get equal time. This seems to work at 6ths at around 72bpm or so, but I'm a little concerned that this emphasis is going to run counter to the minimal motion/lightness of touch ideal and restrict my top speed. Do you have any thoughts/advice on this?

Astute observation. I noticed that myself. Any advice on how to effectively practice combining the two? Is it just a matter of practicing it, or are there specific things I can be doing to work on coordinating my two hands as I play through the scales?

Any advice? Nothing very useful from me I'm afraid. Maybe just check in on the other hand once in a while, once the one you're working on seems to be doing what it's supposed to :).

Funnily enough, this relates to my post just above yours. I thought my left-hand was being lazy when playing scales, in my attempt to keep the touch as light as possible. Well, I just discovered tonight that there's a right-hand problem too. For some reason, when I ascend the scale, my right hand always stumbles when moving from the D to the G string. But only when I start from the bottom E.

Anyway, tonight I worked to fix this by starting (again) very slowly, first nailing the picking with open strings, then introducing the left-hand and concentrating on keeping that controlled and light. Periodically I stopped fretting and double-check the picking was still going how it should be. Maybe something like this would work for you too?