Learn 10 Essential Whammy Bar Techniques

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If you use your whammy bar only to bend notes and add vibrato, you’re missing out on some of its more nuanced, and more extreme, applications.

The TDOVmusic YouTube channel has created this video that can help you get more out of your whammy. It demonstrates 10 whammy bar techniques in one song.

While playing over a common I-vi-IV-V chord progression, the guitarist performs scooped notes, hard vibrato, note flutter, dive bombs and something called the Bigsby Wobble (you’ll get it).

The TDOVmusic channel posts guitar-related compilation videos, instrumentalized song covers, gear demos, lessons, tips and music. Check out their videos by clicking here.

Christopher Scapelliti
Christopher Scapelliti

Christopher Scapelliti is editor-in-chief of Guitar Player magazine, the world’s longest-running guitar magazine, founded in 1967. In his extensive career, he has authored in-depth interviews with such guitarists as Pete Townshend, Slash, Billy Corgan, Jack White, Elvis Costello and Todd Rundgren, and audio professionals including Beatles engineers Geoff Emerick and Ken Scott. He is the co-author of Guitar Aficionado: The Collections: The Most Famous, Rare, and Valuable Guitars in the World, a founding editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine, and a former editor with Guitar World, Guitar for the Practicing Musician and Maximum Guitar. Apart from guitars, he maintains a collection of more than 30 vintage analog synthesizers.