Playing a guitar without vibrato is like eating Mexican food without salsa. No guitarist worth his own salt would ignore vibrato, which often dictates an axeman's unique tone and technique. One player's vibrato may be different from the other's. Some play slow and wide while others play narrow and fast, and that's the beauty behind spending a lot of time learning different vibrato techniques. It's like choosing a queso salsa instead of sour cream on your taco or burrito. Before you get too hungry, let's get to brass tacks and discuss more about vibrato.

Many people mistake vibrato for tremolo. Vibrato is, as the name implies, vibrating a string in such a way that the tone, and not the volume fluctuates. For example if you are playing the 7th fret on the 3rd string with your 3rd finger on your fret hand you can just push the note up slightly and them pull it down slightly. Center on a root note and repeat the motion above until your tone wobbles like so, in such a way that it vibrates. Use your hand, wrist, and arm to make the movements. This is more than just moving your finger up and down. Some guitarists use a bending technique where they pull the string towards the floor and let it bounce back up.

Use different bending techniques at different speeds as you work on your vibrato. Keep your motions fluid and you'll be on your way to mastering the technique. If you are playing a slow blues riff then you may want to slow down and make a wide circular motion with the string, or if you are playing a fast rock lick you may just ad a fast narrow vibrato to accent the final note in a run.

The third finger is usually the most common finger used in adding vibrato, though the first finger and others are also utilized. Using your first finger is a bit trickier. It is this finger, though, that works best in a fast, bluesy vibrato just like you'd hear on a B.B. King number. First thing to do would be to move the first finger far away from the fretboard, press down, then start vibrating the string as quickly as you could. Again, we must remember the root word of vibrato - "vibrate" - so you'll want to make sure that the tone of your guitar does sound like it is vibrating.

Mixing vibrato with other techniques like advanced string bending, legato and harmonics can help you become a dynamite musician in no time flat. You don't exactly have to imitate the likes of SRV, Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck note-per-note - playing guitar is about developing your own style and exercising your creativity. Playing vibrato is one step closer to developing a style you could call your own. Remember to enjoy your guitar playing experience, and be patient when trying different styles of playing vibrato and other techniques.