Vibrato

Scoredog · May 2015

one cool thing is to do really go overboard on the side to side, cool effect.
Obvious solo but different vibrato from Django's phrase (his is straight at this point of the solo).

36 secs in

Appel · May 2015

@scoredog, that guy is a beautiful soloist, great find and thanks for posting that video.

I'm not sure how that wonderful player is making that sound, it could well be just a very strong side-to-side vibrato. Definitely side-to-side on the lower strings, but when he lands on the second string and throws it out there, wow ... what's that? I dunno - but watching it a couple of times reminded me of an article I once read about a brilliant rock guitarist named George Lynch. Anybody know or remember him? Really imaginative guy, one of those very creative players that every other player stole stuff from ... in that article he described a vibrato effect that was created entirely with slides. The idea is to strike a note, then slide up one fret, slide down to one fret below the starting note, then up two frets, down two frets, back and forth - kind of a sliding enclosure, restricted to one semitone above and one semitone below the target note.

Trying Lynch's trick on an A on string 2, plucking A then sliding A#-A-Ab-A-A#-A-Ab and so on, I think it sounds a little bit ridiculous ... but if I slide only a semitone down and then back up to the target pitch, A-Ab-A-Ab-A etc., and stay away from the A#, it works for me. And maybe it sounds similar to the vibrato in the video? Not sure. But I like it!

Anyway. Players often don't try a side-to-side vibrato on a steel-strung acoustic, but I think it's very effective on a feather-light Selmer-style guitar. The silvered strings really let you go deep and wide, even on the plain strings. On an archtop with bronze 0.013-0.056, or worse, flatwounds ... not so much.

Appel · May 2015

... just ... one more thought ...

I don't know about what the brain wants, from our vibrato, exactly. But I do think a well-played note with a touch of vibrato, or maybe a whole lot of vibrato, is beautiful.

Beauty, however, is a very strange quality. What separates the beautiful thing, whatever it is, from the very nice thing? Something about perfection? No - perfection is something else again, and actually seems to contradict beauty, which seems sometimes to hinge upon that odd little extra strange quality - that imperfection? - which you can't quite explain, some aspect or detail that is interesting to the point of being on the edge of irritating - and maybe actually it is irritating!

A violin is a great example of controlled irritation. Maybe every instrument is, and the violin is just the easiest target! But really - it's an awful sounding instrument. Makes nails on a chalkboard seem like a soft breeze wafting through the willows. How do parents of violin students ever survive the first few years? My god, can't imagine. But, in the hands of even kind of an ordinary player, one who has that squawking, scraping caterwaul just barely under control ... it just gets us where we live. We love it! I love it. It makes no sense.

And on top of that noise, there is the question of intonation, and particularly the relationship of vibrato to target pitch. Of course, any competent violinist will always sound nicely in tune and maybe his or her vibrato will rise and fall around the note that we expect to hear and nothing will ever seem off. But the great player will control our expectation of that pitch, set us up to want something, and then will play with that expectation to make us feel how he or she wants us to feel at a certain point in the music; maybe the target pitch of a vibrato will sit a little above what we expect to hear, or maybe it will be a little below, or maybe it will move. And maybe that play with expectation will be irritating - but in the hands of a master, to anyone who is paying attention it will be beautiful.

Ensemble players will practice to gain control of their vibrato so that they can respond to directions in an arrangement; I have seen eighth-note and triplet vibrato notated for the horn sections in sophisticated big band charts, and I've heard that some arrangers will even specify the amount they want the pitch to vary - probably that level of control is invoked by particular conductors in orchestral settings. I also have been in settings where only one instrument in a group - say, the first-chair saxophone - will be directed to use vibrato for a written part while the other saxophones, playing parts voiced below the first chair, will play straight. Wandering a bit from the point, I know ... these are just examples of the technical goals that some pros I've known have had to achieve.

But a soloist might make and is free to make and should make all kinds of choices about how to time the vibrato, or how to work with the pitch. A good soloist might vary the timing, speed up or slow down, work inside the subdivisions or work around or above them - and of course what gets done with the expectations about pitch and intonation are open to choice as well, and are powerfully expressive. Walking that edge of interest vs. irritation is where the artistry lies.

Jazzaferri · May 2015

Having been a first chair sax guy I will say that my experience of section vibrato is limited to the player who has the top note...usually alto. I have heard a few pro big bands try section wide with...hmmmm....shall I say limited success.

Probably best saved for harmisons.

Buco · May 2015

@apell the first guy is Yorgui Loeffler, while he can be stretching his athleticism like in this video, still a ton of fun, his album Bouncin' Around is to me one of the most beautiful examples of playing in this genre I've yet heard.

@Jazzaferri Jay that makes me kinda proud

With those, a little bit goes a long way.