hi I'm Beth blackerby I'm the founder of
violin lab comm it's a website devoted
entirely to teaching violin technique
beginning intermediate advanced with
very detailed video lessons so in this
video I have a limitation of 10 minutes
it's impossible to teach anyone to
vibrate in 10 minutes but I'm going to
try to give you as much information as I
possibly can on learning vibrato just
know that when this this is over there's
still a lot more to learn I have 10 very
detailed videos on the website at violin
lab calm vibrato it's that's
characteristic technique that gives our
sound personality and character it makes
the violins sing
now I realize I can't tell you
everything I need to tell you now but
I'm going to tell you the most important
things a this is not something you can
learn quickly it takes time to learn
vibrato you have to incorporate the
exercises into your practice over time
weeks perhaps months you will start to
be able to vibrate the first thing is
you really need to start without the bow
just do these exercises take five
minutes before you play other things I'm
going to teach you the wrist fiber
Automotion I do have a video on arm
vibrato but for the sake of time we're
just going to do wrists this is very
important right here okay vibrato is an
impulse forward and a rebound back okay
sometimes when teachers teach vibrato
they teach it as two movements back
forward back forward but we really don't
do two motions we do really one motion
and then there's a rebound just like
you're throwing a ball against a wall
okay it rebounds back so the impulse is
forward and your hand naturally bounces
back try this just push your hand
forward and watch it rebound back okay
so to replicate that wall we're going to
use the shoulder of the violin again to
do this with your own hand just push
your hand forward it rebounds back okay
that's the vibrato impulse so we start
without the bow we start without any
pressure on the strings so that we can
really get a freedom of movement you
want to train irregularity that's the
other next important thing is that it's
a very regular even motion so you start
with this impulse and it's just going to
be a little quick movement forward
rebound back you're sliding on the
strings second and third fingers sliding
forward and then popping back
now again vibrato is a movement below
the pitch to the pitch so even though
this looks like I'm I would be moving in
front of the pitch back to the pitch
that's not really what's going to happen
okay we're just getting the motion so we
do this okay you're going to build
regularity and you're going to build in
tempo you're going to build in a reg
Beate okay so after you sort of get the
hang of this and this I mean weeks later
then you're going to start adding a
metronome beat to it or you can just
think a regular pulse beat like this
okay and get this to where you can do
approximate approximately this about
this speed that and it's very regular
it's very loose okay then we're going to
add the bow we're not going to add pitch
yet we're not going to hold the fingers
down it's still going to be harmonic
pressure which means the fingers are
just resting on top of the string and
it's going to be this ghosty wobbly
sound and that's what you want okay when
again don't expect a vibrato pitch yet
so just this ghosty sound with very slow
bows and as you do this give some
attention to your bow hand we want to
start establishing independence from the
left hand to the right hand so that
they're they don't interact that
regardless of what you're doing with the
right hand your left hand will be like a
motor the vibrato is like a motor you
can turn it on and turn it off at will
so long slow bows as you do regular
pulses
and I usually have students do this with
a metronome and then as they do it with
the metronome they'll do it with the
click of the metronome click click click
click and then we subdivide you do it
twice as fast click click click quick
quick quick
and then we can go faster okay and then
once that's established we start to add
a little bit of pressure ok and we just
go incrementally 10% 20% 30% so when I
start to add the pressure we start to
hear a little bit more of a focused
pitch okay we still want a wide
amplitude because the best vibrato --zz
have a wide amplitude is just fast if
you watch soloists they have a huge
vibrato but it goes very fast and has a
very rich and powerful sound we don't
want to build in a very narrow vibrato
so as I add a little bit of pressure
what happens is the finger the skin of
the finger starts to actually sort of
stick to the string on its own and then
as it does that you still have the
vibrato motion but the finger is
starting to stay in place okay again
over the course of weeks so now as I add
a little bit more pressure I start to
hear the pitch okay I was using an A
which is a harmonic here this is a good
pitch to start working with because even
with 50% pressure you start to hear a
clear sound okay now I want to tell you
a few things these are some really
common mistakes I see with students all
the time the biggest mistake is that the
hand right here the knuckle right here
is clenched or pressing up against the
neck of the instrument it's that's the
case the hand cannot vibrate and what
happens is you see students trying to
wiggle the wrist from here
and it's not really creating a vibrato
sound because the finger and the hand
itself is not moving it's not pulling
away from the pitch because it can't its
stationary by holding onto the net
you're you're making the hand and the
fingers stationary so there has to be a
little bit of space between the neck and
and the knuckle of the finger okay
that's the only way we're going to get a
vibrato so ask yourself look in the
mirror if that's the case with your
playing if you're wondering why your
vibrato isn't sounding the way you want
it to look to see if there's contact
between the inside of the hand and the
neck of the instrument so there has to
be this looseness and the other thing is
when you're learning vibrato again don't
be disconcerted that it's slow and
wobbly it will speed up over the time
the biggest mistake is trying to get it
fast too soon and then you build tension
in the hand so it's like it sounds like
this and there's no flexibility or
relaxation so go ahead and allow for
that large wobbly sound at first
that's alright it will speed up it will
become more natural just have the
patience and again check out violin lab
comm I have again 10 very detailed
lessons on the whole vibrato process
I have shifting videos on how videos on
how to both straight beginning lessons