Django's vibrato

ShivaSage

I saw another post where Michael says to release the thumb, tighten the wrist and forearm, and shake the whole arm from the shoulder in order to achieve the awesome gypsy vibrato. Could somebody provide more clarification on how to begin practicing this?

In the video of Django playing J'Attendrai (the only one I've found of him playing), it looks like he is vibrating his whole hand...and/or pushing into the neck with his finger. Here's the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaGZrq5S3QA

From 2:55 - 3:03, there's some nice shots. It looks maybe his thumb is on the neck...? It's different from the motion that Stochelo uses in some of the videos I've watched.

dennis

you can do it both ways, depending on various factors:

-intensity (fast vibrato, slow vibrato, wide, narrow)
-register (where you play the vibrato, high on the neck, low, top string, low string)
-direction you bend the string (up or down)

Stochelo explains alll this in detail (with me in the background explaining to him what he's doing hahha) in his upcoming DVD (we'll hopefully have it ready this summer)

Salieri

Thanks dennis for reply, i've enjoyed your informations

And, Shiva, thanks for that information with release the thumb, that help me.

ShivaSage

I"m still a little bit confused. Could you maybe explain some sort of exercise I could do to start working on it? I'm not sure if I should be releasing my thumb...I've seen it done both ways I think but I'm used to not releasing my thumb so I'm biased in that direction. Is locking the wrist essential?