Thursday, February 28, 2008

Sweaty Palms, and I haven't even started

Last night was dreadful. All but one song was in Eb. I will never complain about playing in F again.

What made it worse was my playing. I had to think about positions for Eb, I had to think through the melodies, and I tried to use this as a reason to expand my CAGED fingering, so I had to think through that.

I was just thinking too much, and that doesn't work well.

The other guitarist caught that, and called me on it. So, I shall have to work on that.

He also suggested I work on my vibrato.

So, how do you work on your vibrato? I know there's a few different vibratos. There's bending and classical style left-right vibrato. I'm willing to try a few of them. What I need are concrete exercises. How do I improve my vibrato?

1 comment:

Joe said...

Reminds me of when I started learning jazz. I thought Eb was crazy. Why not play in E, it's so much easier. Silly saxes.

I think vibrato is the easiest TV exercise there is. Pick a finger, string, and fret while watching a movie, and let 'er rip until you tire. Then switch to a new finger, new fret, new string. Also helps to change direction or type of vibrato.

That's an easy way to isolate the technique and cram a few hours in. I also like to vibrate in time. I might do a vibrato-only solo over a random tune, just play a note every 4 bars and work on keeping the vibrato consistent and locked with the tempo.