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Learn to Play Like B.B. King

By Dan Cross, About.com

3 of 9

B.B. King's Use of Vibrato

Mastering the highly individual sounding vibrato of B.B. King will also take some practice. While some guitarists use only their fingers to create vibrato, B.B. uses his whole hand, rapidly rocking the string back and forth.

Listen to an mp3 clip of B.B. King playing "Worry Worry", and pay attention to the guitarist's vibrato. Notice that although B.B.'s vibrato is very pronounced, he doesn't use it on every note. King reserves vibrato for notes that are held for longer periods of time, or notes he wants to accentuate. Using notes from the blues scale try to mimic King's approach to vibrato.

But, don't take my word for it. Learn about B.B. King's vibrato (and more) from the man himself, in this B.B. King YouTube video guitar lesson.

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