The only thing (almost) nobody practices...and they should!

Dario Napoli

f you play a stringed instrument, this in my opinion is very important!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI-fWXmiEbU

As usual, I'll be on ZOOM tonight https://bit.ly/ZoomWithDario1- At 7 pm Italian time if anyone has any questions about this video, the transcriptions, the upcoming camp, or anything else.

djangology

Link not working any more?

I found it by searching your youtube channel.

Buco

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI-fWXmiEbU

@djangology something to do with the forum software, here you go

Buco

Vibrato is a very neglected skill for most players. It's coming along for me but much slower than other areas of my playing. Well, because I practice it less than anything else. I rarely use any vibrato when playing live and when I do I sort of don't like how it comes out vs what I hear when practicing at home.

It's worth saying that it takes an immense amount of time to get good at it. This is coming from Joscho Stephan and Sam Farthing. They both stressed out that they spent many, many hours working on the technique.

JasonS

I think there's a perception that vibrato isn't particularly effective on acoustic guitars. Honestly in most cases there is some truth to that but obviously it is an integral technique for guitarists to learn in the Gypsy jazz world.

I would say this is more of a guitarist thing rather than something all string players are lacking. You won't find a great violinist or bassist who hasn't spent a great deal of time on it.

Buco

https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/118251#Comment_118251

Yes, good point. I'd think classical guitarists spend a good amount of time working on vibrato too. These gypsy guitars lend themselves really well to it though. I'm thinking because of the long scale and light strings. And when it's done well, it's a musical magic.

Scoredog

I spent hours and hours practicing vibrato trying to match Larry Carlton and Robben Ford, thought I had it down then found I had to practice deep rock vibrato to get that right then I knew I had it down but wait... found Django last and Gypsy Jazz and once again it is a work in progress even though it now "mostly" works. I really think vibrato is what sonically separates levels of players more than anything else, then again Henry Acker does not use a lot of vibrato.

Jangle_Jamie

My biggest problem has been that I learned classical guitar from age 12, and so any vibrato I played was always side to side, not up and down. I've found it incredibly hard to try to re-learn vibrato, and my hands always want to move side to side. Classical vibrato is fine on nylon strings guitars, but it's too subtle on gypsy jazz guitars. Over the years and certainly more recently, I've got my fingers and hand to get some more up and down motion going, but it really does not come naturally.

Thanks Dario, I will sit down and go over this again properly because you and Scoredog are right - it's so important!!

MichaelHorowitz

@Jangle_Jamie Fapy uses a horizontal vibrato:

https://youtu.be/dbcWp1cxf20?si=-lqn3JoFwP2mbOYX&t=862

Jangle_Jamie

Ah yes, I hadn't noticed before. There is some vertical movement too, a bit like mine now.

On another note, someone get that man some shims!

Teddy Dupont

https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/118260#Comment_118260

You can see clearly from the little footage we have of Django that he used the vertical vibrato like violinist do. It is much more subtle than the horizontal "slurring" approach currently used by gypsy jazz players.