"Free Your Inner Vibrato" Post Includes 30 Minute LIVE Online Class recorded October 2013

Written by Heather Broadbent
Published: July 24, 2014 at 1:55 PM [UTC]

 
Oldie but Goodie Post written in October 2013, about how to "Free Your Inner Vibrato." This post has been updated to include the "Free Your Inner Vibrato" Class I gave last October. The video is made available only for my online community and violinist.com viewers.
Enjoy the post and the class :)
Online Violin has been in existence for one year now and that means I have been blogging for one year. Funny thing is I just realized that I am a blogger. Interestingly enough, I have avoided the topic of vibrato. If you follow my youtube videos – not one of them is about vibrato. If you follow my posts you realize not one post about vibrato. Well, I have come to the point that I cannot avoid vibrato any longer because tomorrow October 2, I am giving an online class about Left Hand Techniques – including the v word – VIBRATO. My story starts with my own personal development of vibrato. I remember very clearly how my teached told me to practice vibrato. I was to put a sponge on the wall between the scroll of my violin and the wall to ensure that my left hand was only focused on vibrating and not holding the instrument. I remember doing this every day. I also remember that I was not happy with how I sounded when I was practicing vibrato and I would close the door to my bedroom thinking that way no one could hear how horrible I sounded. But after a week of diligent practice - I had vibrato.

Later in my violin journey I developed the varying widths, speeds, and type of vibrato. After teaching vibrato to countless students I have learned that there really is not a universal recipe of teaching vibrato. Every student was different and every vibrato that was developed had its own personality and flavor. Which is absolutely wonderful. So....Last week I was asked during my Online Violin Scale class, “What is the SECRET to Vibrato?” I easily avoided the question and said that is for next week's class:) But if I had to say one secret and only one secret to vibrato it would be............. A Relaxed Left Hand It is absolutely imperative to have a relaxed hand in order to have a healthy vibrato. Yes it is true, you can vibrate with tension but who wants to listen to that and you are doing yourself more damage than good. If you find this to be happening, STOP !! Don't encourage vibrato with tension. It is better to not vibrate and wait until you can developed a relaxed vibrato. Whenever I start to teach vibrato to a student I first ask them to demonstrate to me what they think is vibrato with their third finger on the A or D string. This lets me know what our starting point is and which vibrato that they are naturally able to do. For example, if a student shows me an arm vibrato at first then that is what we focus on developing first and if they are naturally able to do a hand vibrato then that is what we develop first.   SO tips and Exercises to developing a healthy beautiful vibrato.   No matter if you are developing an arm or hand vibrato it is imperative that you start with a relaxed left hand and arm. Have a great violin hold with your jaw and shoulder and shake out your left hand. Bring your left hand to the violin completely relaxed  

ARM VIBRATO EXERCISES  

• Move your left arm in the direction of scroll to bridge without touching the violin following a parallel motion with the fingerboard. This just helps enforce which way the vibrato should be going and gets the muscles moving so they are not locked.


• Practice first on the shoulder of the instrument with your thumb under the violin and finger on top of the shoulder of the voilin. Move Parallel to the fingerboard.


• Bow on open strings while doing steps 2 and 3. Sometimes it is difficult to have the left and right hand do completely different motions. Patting your stomach and rubbing your head and vice versa is a great exercise to practice hand independence.


• Place the third finger down on the A string in first position and shift up the fingerboard and down. Be sure to have the arm work as a team and not just the finger shifting. This also helps encourage the proper motion for vibrato. Stay relaxed and eventually make the shifts smaller and smaller until you are barely shifting but still feel that you are moving your arm back and forth. Think of increasing and decreasing the angle at your elbow created by your bicep and forearm.

HAND VIBRATO

• Colleagues of mine are firm believers in using the egg shakers to help develop vibrato. To be honest, I tried this one student and didn't see results that I liked with the egg shaker. It could be the student, it could be the method but hey if it helps you out great!! Follow step two below but with egg shaker in your hand.


• While holding the instrument with jaw and shoulder shake out the relaxed left hand in motion of the fingerboard. Feel your hand going back and forth from the wrist. Feel it actuall flop back and flop forth. Bring the great relaxed left hand to the instrument, put third finger on A and feel the same motion while the fingertip of the third finger is glued to the fingerboard. Back Forth Back Forth


• Focus on the hand moving back and forth not the wrist moving in and out

 

  Exercises for both vibratos   No matter the type of vibrato that is being developed, it is very important to feel your fingertip glued to the fingerboard and is being moved by the arm or hand.  

• Practice with violin scroll against the wall cushioned by a sponge


• Practice with metronome at quarter note equals 60 and move back and forth as quarters, eights, triplets, sixteenths and increasing speed rhythmically.


• Very important once you have developed the motion to start using it right away in pieces on half notes, whole notes, what I call half notes for the left hand but quarter notes for the right.


•  Use a timer and spend three minutes practicing vibrato on each finger.


•  Apply the newfound vibrato to your scales.

  Advanced Exercises (after the vibrato is well established) Apply these exercises to your scale practice (ideally to a scale you feel very confident about the intonation. The purpose here is really to practice vibrato not the scale)  

• Varying widths of vibrato – fast, slow


•  Practice nonstop vibrato – feel as if you are practicing through the fingers from one finger to the next. Watch in front of a mirror that your vibrato does not stop ever. If it does practice those two fingers specifically


•  Start to develop Arm vibrato if you have hand vibrato and vice versa with scales

I know there is so much more that can be added to this list and if you have had your own personal breakthrough vibrato please share below. Vibrato, like many aspects of the violin, is a personal journey. You can have guides on your journey to help but your vibrato is truly your vibrato :)
UPDATE!!! Free Your Inner Vibrato 30 Minute Live Online Class Only for my online community and violinist.com viewers.

Register for Violin Fitness and not only get access to my Free Your Inner Vibrato Class and all other previously recorded online violin classes - get access to live monthly online classes with myself and other violin enthusiasts!!

Love and Light Heather

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