Vibrato is one of the most expressive ukulele techniques. It allows you to give a personal touch to notes and carry emotion through them.
Vibrato is the movement you use to vary of the pitch of a note. Do this by moving the string slightly with your fretting finger.
In this guide I’ll show you how to play the two main styles of vibrato on your ukulele:
Rock and Roll Vibrato
This vibrato comes mostly from blues and rock guitarists and has become the prevalent style for most ukulele players. It is a pronounced vibrato and can be used to emulate the human voice.
Rock and roll vibrato is created by moving the string up and down as you hold a note, parallel to the frets.
To make this happen, you’re basically bending the string upwards slightly and releasing, several times per second.
Hold a note and lighten your grip on the neck considerably. You want the neck to float under your finger.
Pick the note and rock your wrist back and forth in a “so-so” motion while still holding the note. Try using the side of your index finger as the pivot point and power for moving your finger up and down. Let the neck move around a bit if it wants to.
Before
After. Notice how the string is pushed out of alignment slightly by my hand turning upwards.
It’s typically easier to get the vibrato going if you use the momentum of your hand and the ukulele. As you hold the note, open up the rest of your fingers so that when you twist your wrist, the weight of your hand creates some overshoot in either direction.
Relative to your hand, the neck moves in the opposite direction. Use its up and down motion to counterbalance your hand. The elasticity of the strings allow you to pull slightly in the opposite direction to reverse the neck. Once you get things moving, you have to use only a slight bit of effort.
Sometimes, if I’m really trying to wail, I will aggressively wobble the neck using my biceps and my hand will move up and down 5-6″ with the neck.
Classical Vibrato
This style is borrowed from classical guitar and has a more subtle sound.
While rock and roll vibrato only bends the pitch upwards, classical vibrato bends the pitch downwards as well. This makes for a more natural, beautiful warble that moves around the original pitch, higher and lower.
Classical vibrato is created by moving your finger inside the ukulele fret horizontally, parallel to the direction of the string.
Play a note and then move your whole hand back and forth parallel with the ukulele string. The goal is to shift the string back and forth over the fret wire.
When your hand moves towards the headstock, inside the fret, you’re pulling the string sharp
When your hand moves towards the body, inside the fret, you’re pushing the string flat
Move your hand around the fretting finger as it shifts higher and lower.
The idea here is that when your hand moves towards the body, you are in fact loosening the string and lowering the pitch. When your hand moves away from the soundhole, you pulling the string back over the fret, tightening the string and raising the pitch.
When and How to Use Vibrato
Vibrato is a great way to add beauty to your ukulele playing, but using it all the time will sound tacky. In my experience, it’s better to use it sparingly at moments where the music breathes and you have time to implement it.
To start, try to vibrato at the end of melodic phrases. This gives you a plan and also a chance to set up for using the technique as you play toward it.
Another thing to consider is how big to make the vibrato. Should it be subtle? Or do you want to sound like a seasick whale?
Most instruments can play this technique, except for hammered instruments like the piano. So listen to your favorite musicians and pay attention to their vibrato. How far do they bend the pitch? How fast do they vibrato?
Use this intel to practice how you want to execute the technique.
In my playing, I try to mimic either the gentle warble of a wonderful singer like Norah Jones. Or, I go full wail with a big vibrato like Eric Johnson plays.
Tab:
In ukulele tab vibrato looks like this (a curvy dash around the note: ~):
A |--------- E |---~7~--- C |--------- G |---------
And in a full-staff tab it is a wavy line:
