Hi everyone,

I'm just getting back into serious singing after about a 15 year break. And of course I'm finding RYV invaluable.

My question is regarding developing pitch vibrato. I've never had a natural vibrato. I'm about to audition for a musical (JCS) and I think a good vibrato would be another weapon in my arsenal.

I'm following the advice from RYV, but I have 2 questions:

-The exercise in RYV involves alternating between varying pitch upwards and then downwards. When would I choose one over the other? Is it dependant on the pitch and key whether one will sound better than the other? I listen to professional singers, and when they have a good vibrato, it's so natural, in most cases I'm stuggling to hear whether they are going up or down.

-Can anyone suggest any additional exercises or websites with more info?

Thanks,

Martin

Hey Martin,

I really hate to be a downer, but if you have no natural vibrato, that's probably a sign of vocal tension.


While I love, love, LOVE RYV and everything it's done for me, I'm personally not 100% sure about Jamie's method for training vibrato. I haven't heard about anyone learning a natural sounding vibrato from a method like that... I'm not saying it's wrong, and lord knows Jamie knows a thousand times more about voice than I do, but I just don't think I agree with his method.


What seems to work the best for most people is to just listen to other singers with a free, easy sounding vibrato, and imitate them as much as possible.


I too had no vibrato at first, when I started voice lessons, and then I picked up a fake, pushed one from listening to my first voice teacher. After a while, when my voice got a little more free (and I'd listened to some singers with a nice, easy vibrato), it turned into a natural vibrato.

I'm so sorry--I completely forgot to answer the first questions.


"When would I choose one over the other? Is it dependant on the pitch and key whether one will sound better than the other? I listen to professional singers, and when they have a good vibrato, it's so natural, in most cases I'm stuggling to hear whether they are going up or down."

Typically, you just use whatever sounds best. I know that sounds like a copout answer, but it's true. Just think about it... if the vibrato is going downward in pitch, and is faster paced, it might make for a somewhat mellow sound. Now if the vibrato is downward, but wider/heavier, it might make a slightly more mournful, or serious sound.

If the vibrato is quick, and going up, then it will probably make a more 'shimmery' sound... you might want that for a happy song.



I personally don't really think about it that much . Typically for me, the emotion of the song tends to carry my vibrato-style a lot... I just don't stop to consider what I'll do.

Thanks for the advice Anthony. I've been Googling a bit today, and there definitely seems to be a school of thought that vibrato is "freed" or "released" rather than learned. But I used to sing a lot when I was young, and I seem to remember always having a very straight clear tone without any vibrato, which is what I still produce. I don't feel like I'm making any effort to do this, although I accept that I could be unaware of it.

Is it possible that my natural voice doesn't have any vibrato? Should I just be happy with that and do what feels natural? Or is this really a sign that I've learned a bad habit that should be corrected?

I have personally always had some form of vibrato but I've learnt how to do the vibrato I currently use from listening to singers that have it, like Rob Halford. My advice would be, release your tension (do not cling onto the notes like your life depends on them) and then just try to produce a vibrato sound that you like. For a long time I had no stomach vibrato (tremolo) and I was reading a certain book at the time that was saying that I should work from the mechanics to the voice, ie. contract the stomach muscles by saying "hey" and then focusing on keeping the motion going. It didn't work for me, what did work was just working the volume of my voice up and down and then focusing on the feeling of the *result* not the mechanics.

Saying that, my vibrato still has some tension, I think, whenever I use it in certain ranges it works a bit bizarre, my stomach vibrates, the pitch vibrates but my jaw and the larynx vibrate as well, I don't think that this should be happening. I quite like the sound it produces though.

Lack of vibrato does comes from too much tension. It could be tension from your tongue, a wrong throat opening, too much support or air going through the vocal chords. Relax! Yawn on "huh" than than stop on a comfortable note and let it go to see if it starts vibrating.

I have difficulty understanding natural vibrato. What many people say is that it comes with release. I agree with this, the fact that tension won't allow you to easily oscillate the note. At this moment, I dont even practise trying to master a vibrato, because I dont really have much tension in my voice and I can achieve it and different speeds. If it's a long note, I'll make the vibrato slower (not rediculously slow) because I find it easier to for long periods and keep it steady. For short notes I'll do fast vibrato. If I feel tense on a particular day as I approach higher notes...I'll use stomach vibrato.

So, having minimal tension really helps me produce a decent vibrato. But by no means did I ever have a "natural" one.

The problem I have is that many people say that it just shows up as you figure out correct support and minimal tension and throat release. As if, it is involuntary. Like you flick a switch and the vibrato just comes. Is this true? It doesn't require any coordination in terms of spacing out the oscillations evenly? It just shows up one day? Well that sounds convenient!

I think Jaime's technique (Also Thomas Appell's) is good. Also, I believe that whether you're using a metronome and oscillating up and down a half step...or imitating someone's vibrato, you're basically doing the same thing. You are learning, or developping a vibrato... One that seems opposed to "natural" vibrato.

I will have to disagree with Anthony about learning vibrato the way that you are trying. It worked for me. And you can learn pitch vibrato whether you have great technique or not.
I had a completely straight voice when i started singing.. for the life of me i could not get vibrato.
And every weekend when i was in work, i would practice humming those trills.
Start on a note and then move up, then back, then down then back. I know it wont feel like its going anywhere because you will be conciously trying to change the notes as fast as you can....but keep doing it, and start off with humming like i did, because there is less vocal cord tension that way, dont start out on a full voice.
Eventually after conciously doing these trills and changing notes, it will just happen....like magic.
And then you will just need to build it up from a hum, gradually into full voice....and then you have to get used to using it on your higher notes....
But dont be put off if you dont have a natural vibrato! I never did, and now i have an over-exaggerated vibrato! lol
Good luck

Purchase Brett Manning's "Developing Vibrato" course. Pitch vibrato CAN be learned regardless of anyone's opinion ;)The one's who say they are natural, just had a lot better beginning and natural feel for it. I'm not a pro basketball player but I can learn to be decent although i know of others who had it come to them naturally. Point is, NEVER feel that you cannot do something you put your mind to. We ALL have an inate ability to become decent at anything we choose, if we have the passion.
JV

JV