Specifics of Vibrato

The various types measured

We have to consider all cases in science — we’ll see there’s a reason I mention this.

This is produced through changes in tension on the string on either side of the finger, by oscillating it over the string along the string length. More fingers apply more tension and result in a wider frequency excursion.

It’s crystal clear how this works, but just for the record: we’re bending the string.

“When too much is never nough”

I have personally experimented with this a long while back: you can very slightly vary the tension of the strings by pressing hard enough to force the strings to take a sharper angle over the frets.

It is a lot of effort for a miniscule effect, and may even be ill-advised due to possible muscle injuries by causing excess tension in the hands and wrist.

Here’s a video to show what is going on by running a pitch analyser on the solo track as it plays— there is a minimal backing in the same key as the notes to illustrate the effect of the vibrato in context of other musical tones.

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