5 steps to prepare to learn vibrato (even as a beginner)
This blog post accompanies Violin Class Podcast Episode 41. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Learning vibrato is such an important rite of passage when it comes to learning the violin. It's something that every violin student strives for and something that sometimes feels impossible to learn.
It’s a technique that every violinist can and should learn, and there is a method to developing the technique.
Free Vibrato Ebook
If you want to follow along more in-depth, download my free vibrato ebook.
You’ll learn about the historical background of vibrato, arm vs. wrist vibrato, more about the 4 stages of learning vibrato, 3 pre-vibrato exercises, and common vibrato mistakes.
However, vibrato is not a beginner technique, and I completely understand the frustration when it comes to wanting to play with a beautiful sound but not having vibrato in your toolbox.
Here are some things that you can start doing even as a beginner, even in your first year of violin playing to get ready to learn vibrato.
Research and Listening
By listening to vibrato played by professional violinists, and reading what violin teachers have to say on the technique, you can start training your ear and eye years before you actually are ready to train your fingers. .
Read violin treatises
The amount of information on violin technique online is overwhelming. It’s helpful to go back to the “source” and read original violin treatises. There are many old-school violin method books written by the well-known teachers of classical violin.
They break down all different parts of violin technique and how you're “supposed” to play (according to them, anyway).
Book recommendations
Principles of Violin Playing and Teaching - Ivan Galamian
Violin Playing as I Teach It - Leopold Auer
Basics - Simon Fischer
“Resorting to the vibrato in an ostrich, like endeavor to conceal bad tone production and international from oneself and from others, not only halt progress in the improvement of one's fault, but as out and out, dishonest artistically.” - Actual quote from Auer
Some of these treatises are in the public domain, so you can also find them online for free.
Active listening (and watching)
Beginners starting violin in the 2020's have an advantage because there is so much incredibly valuable material to watch on Youtube.
Make watching and studying professional violinists on Youtube part of your violin practice, and you’ll start to internalize good technique.
There are a few things you can observe during your research on tone production.
The first question to ask is: is the vibrato fast or is it slow?
Example 1: Jascha Heifetz plays Melodie by Gluck
Example 2: Renaud Capucon
Two violinists playing the same piece, with very different vibrato.
Which one sounds fast?
Which one sounds slow?
If this is your first time doing this kind of listening exercise and they didn't sound super different to you, don't worry: active listening takes practice.
And the more you do it, the more details you'll be able to hear.
Once you’ve listened for speed, there are other things you can pay attention to:
When are the violinist using the vibrato?
Do they play the vibrato equally on each finger?
How do they sound over string crossings?
At which speed or tempo do they stop using vibrato?
These questions will help you to train your ear for what to listen to. When you’re finally ready to start learning the technique, you’ll know what to listen for and what to really aim for when you're playing.
Focus on your fundamentals
Check your violin setup
It is not possible to have a good vibrato if you're not secure in your violin hold: you must be able to keep your violin in place with just your head.
If you can’t, you need to make sure you have the right combination of chin rest and shoulder rest when you play violin. This takes trial and error, but is important to get right before starting to learn vibrato.
If you don't feel comfortable in your violin setup, it should be a priority for you to improve on it. Work with your teacher, do your research and go visit your local violin shop.
They are the best people to help you find a better fit for both your shoulder rest and your chin rest.
Practice your fundamentals: posture and position
Along with proper setup, you need to focus on tightening up your fundamentals.
The biggest thing that I look for when my students are getting ready to start vibrato is a very relaxed hold of the violin. Proper setup helps with this, but there are other things to keep in mind. As a teacher, I’m looking for:
Finger placement
Relaxing your shoulders
Making sure that you're not squeezing from the thumb
Overall stance
These technical fundamentals are really crucial to getting a beautiful vibrato sound.
Otherwise, you can practice the exercises all you want, but you won't actually be doing them correctly and won’t get results.
Pre-vibrato exercises
Once you’re happy with your setup and you are able to produce sound in a relaxed way, you can start pre-vibrato exercises.
These are exercises that you can practice to start training your muscles to get used to the movements that are required one learning vibrato, which is pretty exciting.
You can follow my mini-tutorial videos below:
The Siren
Silent rocking
These exercises will help to get your muscles used to the motion needed for vibrato.
They will build up strength and the dexterity that you need to have a beautiful effortless vibrato. Practice these often, but in little doses.
Don’t neglect the bow
One of the challenges with vibrato is not doing the actual motion with your left hand, but coordinating that while still moving the right hand properly.
I always say that playing the violin is like trying to juggle while riding a unicycle while trying to sing an opera.
We're doing so many different things with different parts of our bodies, and we need to be able to put each of those kind of on autopilot so that we can focus on what's new and different.
So the more comfortable you can get with playing a very even bow, the easier time you're going to have when it comes to introducing the vibrato and integrating that into all of your playing— not just exercises.
Practice open strings
Don’t skip on your open strings practice, your long tones, and your scales.
These fundamentals will promote an even bow stroke and will help when you comes to playing vibrato. Even though it doesn't seem like the two are necessarily directly related, they absolutely are.
Let’s review
Research and active listening to professional violinists help to develop your understanding of vibrato.
Focus on fundamental aspects such as violin setup and posture
Practice pre-vibrato exercises
Coordination between left-hand vibrato and right-hand bowing is essential.
Regular practice of open strings, long tones, and scales improves bowing technique, indirectly aiding vibrato mastery.
The most important advice I can give you is this:
Don’t rush.
Vibrato takes a lifetime to master. That's not to say it's going to take a lifetime to learn to play a nice vibrato, but it's something that you chip away at over time.
You can’t master the technique in a week or a month: that's the truth.
But, with regular practice and guidance from a teacher, it is something that you absolutely can and should learn, because it's such an important part of playing the violin.
It brings so much life to your music, and is really motivating achievement for all violinists.