The Mistake That Prevents Fast Metal Guitar Licks From Sounding Intense And Musically Expressive
Ever played a fast metal guitar lick but felt like it didn’t quite sound as good as when your favorite guitarist plays it? A lot of great metal guitarists have mastered subtle aspects of their playing that many people overlook. These subtle nuances add up and give them that badass sound that sets them apart from everyone else.
One of the most commonly overlooked techniques that makes metal guitar licks sound amazing is vibrato. Playing fast licks without vibrato added to any of the notes makes your guitar playing sound lifeless and robotic.
Mastering the ability to use vibrato together with fast metal guitar licks makes your playing sound musically expressive and intense… just like the pros.
Before you use vibrato to play metal guitar licks with tons of emotional intensity, you must learn how to keep it in tune:
Keep your vibrato in tune by bending the string up to the specific you want to match pitch and returning the string back to the original pitch you began on.
For instance, using vibrato that is a half-step wide means bending the string so it matches the pitch of one fret above where you began. From here, release the string so that you return to the original pitch.
This video demonstrates how to keep your vibrato guitar technique in tune consistently:
[Note: Learn more ways to make your guitar solos sing besides using vibrato by reading this guitar phrasing article]
Now that you know how to keep your vibrato in tune, learn how to use it in your metal licks:
These Exercises Help You Play Fast Metal Guitar Licks With Kickass Vibrato
Exercise #1: Practice Adding Vibrato To Every Final Note
Adding vibrato to the end of your musical phrases gives it more intensity and emotional expression. This ends your metal guitar licks with a bang, leaving people in awe.
Play the tab below several times without vibrato using whatever note rhythms you want, but holding the last note longest:
Next, play the vibrato as indicated on the last note of each sequence. By doing this, you instantly see a huge difference in the amount of musical expression that is created.
This is the first step towards using vibrato guitar technique to enhance any metal lick.
Improve Your Vibrato Technique Using A Rapid-Fire Practice Approach
It’s surprisingly common for guitarists to want to improve their vibrato while never actually practicing it. Good news is, you are able to very quickly develop killer vibrato guitar technique by spending just 5 minutes a day on it.
This is done by simply practicing adding vibrato to every note of a given guitar lick, as seen below:
Focus on making every vibrato perfectly in tune while applying the technique to every note. Repeat this for 5 minutes while using every possible combination of fingers to fret the notes. This helps you develop great vibrato for ALL your fingers, not just your first or second ones (the most commonly used fingers for vibrato).
Master The Ability To Express Specific Emotions Using Different Kinds Of Vibrato
Using the same type of approach to vibrato every time becomes boring over time. It’s important to have the ability to mix it up while soloing and adapt based on different musical situations.
Here are some examples of different types of vibrato and ideas for when to use them:
Wide and fast – This type of vibrato is either a half or full step wide and is applied fast to add tons of emotional intensity to a lick. This is perfect when you want to release the tension built up by a fast metal guitar lick on a note that is held out for several bars.
Slow and narrow – This vibrato is subtle. It is generally less than a half-step wide and sometimes applied by merely fretting a note and moving one’s finger back and forth within the fret. This is great for slow or clean/soft parts of a guitar solo.
This tab is an example of using both types of vibrato:
Practice each type of vibrato while working on the rapid-fire approach above to quickly master the ability to express yourself with this technique.
Make Bends For Intense Using Vibrato Technique
Adding vibrato to your bends gives them additional live (sustain) and makes them sound MUCH more intense and expressive. This technique is a must for playing killer metal guitar solos that demand attention!
Alternate using a bend with and without vibrato as seen below:
The difference in emotional expression is massive! Note: this technique takes a little time to master. Add this to your guitar practice schedule to quickly gain control of it and add more expressive potential to your metal guitar solos.
Finally, it is important to understand that you do not need to apply vibrato immediately to every note. This is something many guitarists never think about. Understanding this simple concept already puts you way ahead of most players.
Instead of applying vibrato the instant you play a note, you also have the option to delay the application of vibrato.
This is done like so:
Strike the string for the note you are fretting and let it ring out for a moment. After a moment, THEN apply the vibrato. This short delay adds a sense of anticipation that makes the vibrato even more intense!
Learn more about how to play killer vibrato to enhance your metal guitar playing by reading this article on how to make your vibrato guitar technique sound great.