Vibrato

Vibrato is one of the most expressive techniques in music. It‘s subtle, but most notes you hear on an ‘ukulele album have a little bit of vibrato. Vibrato is varying the pitch of a note by moving the string slightly. It isn’t hard to do vibrato. You do need to make sure it is nice vibrato, vibrato that will add to the music. Because it can be overdone.

There are several different kinds of vibrato that you can play. I will explain two main types: “normal vibrato” and “classical vibrato”. Normal (just my made up name) vibrato is made by moving your hand, fingers, and wrist vertically. This is what you see most rock/blues guitarist play. Classical vibrato is made by moving your finger inside the fret horizontally. This is a more subtle vibrato. I’ve seen Brittni Paiva use this kind quite a bit.

Like many techniques, everybody plays vibrato a little differently, so you will have to experiment to figure out what works for you.

Normal vibrato is what I use almost exclusively because I have found a sound that I like. The way I play vibrato is like this. I hold a note, lift my thumb off the neck so that the only thing attaching my left hand to the ‘ukulele is my fretting finger, and pick. I then wiggle my left hand up and down from the elbow, keeping my wrist relatively still and use the motion of the neck to counter my movement. I’m working with my ‘ukulele, not trying to keep it still – the countering motion keeps it from moving much more than half an inch in ether direction. My left hand pinky ends up moving around half an inch once I get the vibrato going. I like the sound of a slow vibrato swelling faster after the note starts to decay. Another way to do this kind of vibrato is to keep your thumb on the neck and use it as a swivel to move your wrist.

Classical vibrato is probably harder to do. Fret a note with your fingernail facing the sound hole. Pick the note and then move your whole hand back and forth in line with the string. Your pinky should end up moving around half an inch to an inch. You are moving your hand around the fretting finger as it wiggles.

Easy. Some practice and you will have it figured out in no time. Try playing a note with vibrato and then one without. It’s just one more thing to add to your playing.