Vibrato; best way to do it

[bassguy74]

I want to do vibrato, but when I try to do it the way I see often used on Youtube videos, it doesn't work. LOL They move their hands back and forth quickly, ostensibly, and that seems to yield a pretty pronounced vibrato that sounds good. However, when I try it it does NOT work. LOL

There's axial and radial; one is up and down on the string, the other one is the way I mentioned with back and forth motion. Which do you guys suggest as the easier of the two, and what are some tips on doing it right and making it sound good?

[VanillaThundah]

haha, just kidding man!

If you want to go the lazy man's (my) route, the pedals do a pretty decent job if you've got them set properly. If you wanted to go 100% natural, the "back and forth" seemed to yield a pretty good sound without making your notes go somewhere you don't want them to. Doing it up and down might bend it too much and change the note you are trying to emphasize but YMMV.

[bassguy74]

Originally Posted by VanillaThundah

haha, just kidding man!

If you want to go the lazy man's (my) route, the pedals do a pretty decent job if you've got them set properly. If you wanted to go 100% natural, the "back and forth" seemed to yield a pretty good sound without making your notes go somewhere you don't want them to. Doing it up and down might bend it too much and change the note you are trying to emphasize but YMMV.

Ooookkkk but that didn't tell me HOW to do it! LOL

[kesslari]

Parallel to the string - practice moving slowly and quickly. You're sort of rolling on the tip of the finger. The sound is more pronounced on a fretless, on fretted it's more subtle.

[Staccato]

IMHO, practice moving from the elbow-with the hand and wrist relaxed! Thus, moving your arm-slightly sideways-from the elbow w/ your finger on the note (upper arm is fairly motionless).

You'll find articles cautioning you about when/how long you over-extend fingers, or maintain a stiff wrist.

[onlyclave]

The way to practice vibrato is to set your metronome to something like 100 bpm and pick your favorite note on the G string (mine is D). Use your first finger and roll it back and forth between the "fret space" in in 8th notes "Up-down-up-down-up-down", then 8th note triplets, then 16ths, then 16th triplets and then do the same thing with your other three fingers. They are going to get sore.

This method works on fretted the same as fretless basses. Vibrato is not a wild bending of the pitch back and forth. On a double bass you can ostensibly create vibrato with an open string and moving your fingers the same way on the upper bout.

As your motion gets smoother and you figure out that vibrato exists to warm up your tone and keep your hands soft you can increase the speed of the metronome.