December 22, 2012 at 5:16 AM
Shake it, baby!If only vibrato were so simple. But it's not: It's an odd motion, using a strange set of usually-underdeveloped muscles to create something that at first sounds about as lovely as a broken car alarm.
And yet, your playing suffers if you neglect this technique. You have to get "over the hump" and make it second-nature. There are many ways to get going on vibrato, and in fact, just this week Liz Lambson wrote an excellent article about the topic.
As a teacher, I always first try the following approach, before going into exercises and elaborate explanations:
"Try it. Go!" Occasionally someone gets it fairly naturally, and even if they don't, I learn where we're starting.
Personally, being left-handed and being a complete violin nerd, I experimented quite a lot on my own, and it came quickly to me. How about you? Was it difficult to learn vibrato, or did it come pretty easily?
I voted no because my former teacher never really "taught" it to me? He just showed me and told me to try it and yea...that was the full extend of my vibrato lesson. :P Now, I have just started studying with a great teacher and he noticed how underdeveloped my vibrato is so I guess I'll be working on it soon :)
Admittedly I seem to stress the bow more than anything else and so I don't always specifically practice vibrato on a day to day basis, until just recently.
I still think it is mainly a psychological limitation. Being an older (59) beginner and former guitar player (totally different vibrato) it may take some time but I'm sure I'll get it.
I once read it takes up to five years to get a good sound out of a clarinet. So I figure in another three years if I still don't feel like I can play the violin in front of my musician friends I switch to the viola.
Just kidding, I really do want a viola next. My nine year old wants a cello after a little more piano. My poor wife.
I am left handed (smile), I was an old beginner (10), I modeled the older students in string class, my teacher would demo with vibrato, and, having grown up listening to both live opera and the Saturday Met Opera broadcasts, I had a vibrato sound already in my ear.
I'm also with you on the naturalistic approach with students. I have a few simple exercises (senza bow) that seem to help to get things started. Less is more...
Merry Christmas!
I was an impressionable kid and greatly admired my teacher's playing. As we know, kids have a way of picking up things and assimilating them without being able to explain them -- especially those things they admire; so for me, it was akin to a child picking up language skills -- from hearing the speech of those around him.
Also, as I grow older, I'm noticing that my flexibility and dexterity are changing, so my body has to do different things to maintain expressive vibrato. I've learned to use more arm, because my finger and wrist joints are not as flexible. I would think that if one doesn't adjust technique as your body changes, the fact that you're aging will be noted in other people's ears. The vibrato will sound more strained and tentative, less modulated and more measured.
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