Whammy Bar Tricks You Need To Try IMMEDIATELY

All guitars are built with the ability to be incredibly expressive instruments. I believe the reason why guitars are so popular is because they can imitate the human voice better than pretty much any other instrument. However, there is one feature not shared by all guitars that makes the instrument even more fun to play and listen to. That feature, of course, is the whammy bar. In this lesson, I'm gonna show you my favorite tricks you can use right away that work especially well on Floyd Rose style bridges.

The Flutter

First up is the flutter.  This whammy bar trick adds a quick, stunning effect to any notes you choose.  It sounds and looks pretty fancy but really isn't too difficult to do.  All you do is swipe the fingertips of your picking down along and off the tip of the bar while pressing it down and letting it go.  Think of it like making a spring door stopper go "boing!" This effect sounds especially cool if you're hitting it with natural harmonics.  

The Dive Bomb

The next trick, the dive bomb, is another relatively easy trick to pull off.  Any challenge you face with it likely has to do with where you are applying pressure to the bar, but we'll get into that.

First, play any note and immediately press the bar down gradually so the tip travels toward the body of the guitar.  You want to be sure that the fingertips of your picking hand are applying pressure to the tip of the bar so that it's less physically straining on your wrist and forearm.  

Once you've reached your desired pitch, mute the strings with both hands, then release the bar by returning it to the original resting position.  When muting the strings, both your fretting hand and the heel of the palm of your picking hand should make contact with the strings at the same time.  This will eliminate the sound of the note rising back to its original pitch.

This trick produces an ominous effect that sounds as if the audio is being pulled down or even pushed away from the listener.

Screaming Vibrato

This last effect allows you to go wild and strongly capture the listener's attention.

Start by hitting any natural harmonic you like. From there, execute a dive bomb by curling the tip of the bar between the middle and index fingers of your picking hand. After you've reached the lowest point of your dive bomb, this is where having a floating bridge becomes super fun. Pull the bar back and give it some vibrato by rocking it up and down as you keep it pulled away from the body of your guitar.

With this trick, you can almost make your guitar sound like an 80's metal singer hitting a high note while bending it up and down.

Conclusion

The flutter, dive bomb, and screaming vibrato techniques are super fun and gnarly sounding whammy bar moves you can incorporate into your playing right away. You can add these tricks into your riffs and solos, and even use them as standalone effects. The whammy bar can also serve as a creative tool and change the way you approach your writing. It may even inspire you to discover or come up with your own tricks that you haven’t seen before. Start playing around with these techniques so you can get used to how they feel. Before you know it, you'll be throwing down these moves smoothly and elegantly.

Watch the full lesson here: Whammy Bar Tricks You Need To Try IMMEDIATELY