TOPIC: FOR LACK OF A BETTER VENUE....

does hogpaws know about this?

Good Heavens.....you guys sure are "musically literate"....I think I'll just wait till the "feel" hits me..... May take years....but right now I'm just thrilled when my bow and left hand are working together...and I'm not squeaking or sqwaking... . Buzzart....what exactly are you asking??? Does Hogpaws know that I'm posting, playing the fiddle, asking questions, or "shaking/shakeing (George's version)? . Anyway, thanks for the response...wonder what GodBless has to say about this...

Drop the "e", add "ing". An old remembrance from my english teacher on words ending with a vowel...but i digress from the musical relm...
Vibrato and tremolo, 2 cool lead guitar techniques. Vibrato is the rapid finger shake back and forth to make it ring, tremolo is a rapid bend of the string to alter it's pitch rapidly up and down. If playing scales gets boring, incorporate the 2 techniques to make it come alive. Some of the scale runs we learned for tag lines can have these techniques for spicing up the end of a tune. I don't know that i've ever heard a banjo use these techniques, but i know bass players and lead players (guitar) use them, and of course lightning fast fiddle and guitar ace Charlie Daniels uses these techniques in his playing.
When the Fretmentor gets into his blues groove, i've heard him use them. It takes alot of practice, i can say with all confidence i'm not there yet!

I've bent notes before, but this is new to me. I've seen it done (BB King is a good example). Do you shake/wiggle your fretted finger up and down the neck (i.e. bridge to nut) or across the neck like bending a note?

Yeah, that's vibrato. Some people use it more sparingly, while others (like me:))use it just about all the time. One thing to do when doing vibrato is to hold your violin firmly under your chin, so that your arm can be free to loosely hold on to the violin. But ask your violin teacher before doing alot of practicing vibrato, so that you won't get used to doing vibrato the wrong way.
P.S. I'm glad that you're doing so well!

Andrew Baumann wrote:
You bend the string back and forth, NOT up and down. You do not have to slide up and down a fret to change the intonation (which is why it is important your capo is always even). If you slide up and down, it will change the intonation by a cent (a term related to notes, theory, and tuning, if you don't know it) or two, making it sound slightly "out."

If you were to slide back and forth (not up and down! ) vigorously enough, you can actually sustain a note longer. I've sustained a single note for about 15 minutes on my Heritage H535 electric guitar using that technique (the crazy sustian on that guitar helped with that though, LOL).

LOL, and if you want BENDING, then I think David Gilmour could show you some INSANE bending (that is, raising the note he's playing 2 1/2 to 3 WHOLE steps ). If he scares you, that's good, that means you're normal.