The 'Howe' Vibrato

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Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Intermediate Topic: Technique Style: Fusion

Excerpt: Hi folks! Today's lesson is on a very popular technique, used in modern fusion! I am of course referring to the famous 'slide vibrato' used by the great Greg Howe, that has become extremely popular over the last 10 years or more. A few quick things to point out about the examples that I will show in this tutorial: - All based in E minor / Dorian - Can be...

Media Length: 2:11

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Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Intermediate Topic: Technique Style: Fusion

Excerpt: This first example follows the E minor blues pentatonic box, and is a typical lick that you may hear Greg play. This is intended to have 'swing', but can be played with a 4's feel as well! There is a lot of room for variation, depending on the mood, situation, application, technical preference, etc. Practice doing the slide vibrato with a 3-fret span, and a...

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Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Intermediate Topic: Technique Style: Fusion

Excerpt: Here is an 'out there' type of lick that is commonly heard from Howe. The idea is based around a diminished arpeggio, and resolves to a note that is a bit more common over an E minor chord. If you're not used to string skipping, this may be challenging for you. Hybrid picking may make this lick a bit easier for some of you. Another thing to note is that I u...

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Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Intermediate Topic: Technique Style: Fusion

Excerpt: This example gives us two opportunities to use the slide vibrato. If you pay close attention in the video, I contradict one of my opening statements, in that I am mainly sliding between the 9th and 10th frets, in the first note marked with vibrato. This is more of a 'trill' effect, than the slide vibrato, though both will work! Be sure to play the first 6 n...

Media Length: 0:42

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Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Intermediate Topic: Technique Style: Fusion

Excerpt: Here is a nice and short lick that uses a minor arpeggio, ending with a chromatic run that falls slightly out of key. I am very much fond of 'straight 16th' runs, and this particular lick works very well with the slide vibrato! Have some fun switching between a regular 16th, and swing feel. Check out my outro video for a few tips and a request!

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Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Intermediate Topic: Technique Style: Fusion

Excerpt: I hope this has been helpful to you all, whether you already had experience with this technique, or had never heard of it before! If you have any questions, or think that I may have missed an important point, please send me a message! Thanks for taking the time to check out this tutorial!

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Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Intermediate Topic: Technique Style: Funk

Excerpt: Here's a little funk loop that I made to practice the licks over. The tempo is 95bpm.  

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