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Figure 10-9:
Pull-off
licks — in
isolation
and with
hammerons.
182 Part III: Beyond the Basics: Playing Like a Pro TEAM LinG
Shuffle (qr=qce)
A7
5 7 5
T
A
B
5 8 7 5 7 5 5
7
3
7 8 7 5
8 7 5 6
7
7 5 8
5 6 5 6
( 8)
Giving Your Sound a Bit of Flair
In addition to connecting notes with slurs to vary your expression, you can
also add juice to notes after you’ve sounded them. The following sections
describe techniques you can apply to a fretted note after you’ve brought it
to life.
Shake that string: Adding vibrato
Vibrato is the wavering, shimmering quality in a sustained note that gives it
life and vitality. A vibrato can be wide or narrow, pronounced or subtle, or
any one of the infinite variations in between, but you accomplish them all by
using the same technique of bending the note slightly and rocking it back and
forth across the fretboard.
Technically, a vibrato is performed by slightly bending and releasing a string
with a left-hand finger. You can do this a number of ways, but the most
common way in blues is to pull or push and release the string across the fretboard
at a fast rate.
Figure 10-10 shows a sustained note that’s played with vibrato. Listen to the
CD to make sure that you can approximate the rate at which you pull and
release your finger and the intensity (how far or wide you pull the string) to
achieve the pitch-wavering effect. Vibrato is indicated with a wavy line above
the note, and it extends for the duration of the note.