7 violin vibrato mistakes, explained
This blog post accompanies Violin Class Podcast Episode 43. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.
There are vibrato pitfalls at every level, and in this blog post I’ll be covering some of the issues that violinists are working on at each level of their playing.
I'm not only going to look at beginner mistakes, but also some of the things that more advanced players are paying attention to further into their violin studies.
But first, it's important to define why we actually play with vibrato. Vibrato is used to enhance the beautiful sound that's created by pulling with a bow. It’s among the tools of expression that violinists use to add musicality into their playing
With that in mind, let’s get into the 5 vibrato mistakes.
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.
.
Beginner mistakes
Mistake 1: Improper technique
The most common mistake I see as a violin teacher, especially in early-intermediate adult learners, is improper technique.
This is when you are making vibrato-like motions, but not playing with a true vibrato.
These stem from underlying technical issues: you may be moving from the wrong part of your finger, moving at the incorrect angle, or just playing with a lot of tension.
Essentially, you're trying to imitate the sound of a vibrato by making waves in your sound, but the sound that is going to produce is just not going to be quite right.
Watch the accompanying Youtube video to hear a few examples of these mistakes.
You'll hear in the examples that I played that I really lacked control over the speed of the vibration of each note. By our earlier definition of vibrato as a tool of expression, we no longer have the control to be able to express ourselves exactly in the way that we want, which defeats the purpose.
Additionally, playing vibrato with an improper technique is going to affect the intonation. As you heard in the examples, my tuning was not as good as when I was playing with a relaxed technique.
Let me reassure you by saying that a lot of the students that I work with come to me with some sort of tension problem. It is very normal in adult learners, and is something that with the right guidance and focus can absolutely be improved.
Mistake 2: Using vibrato to mask bad intonation
Again, remember our definition of vibrato is to enhance the natural beauty of it is to enhance the beauty of the sound.
And in order to be able to do that effectively, you need to have a rock-solid intonation. Because remember: vibrato is a manipulation of the actual pitch of the sound.
In order to have this manipulation sound good to the listener, the original pitch has to be very clear. Otherwise you're going to have an out-of-tune mess on your hands.
Intonation comes first
So if you're having trouble with intonation, you need to make sure that you work on that first before adding vibrato.
As a teacher, I would so much rather hear a student play with absolutely zero vibrato, but very good intonation than playing with vibrato, even with good technique, with poor intonation.
If you start practicing vibrato, when you have significant intonation issues, it is like same as painting over a cracked wall when you have structural damage to your house.
It might feel good in the moment, but very quickly, everything is going to start to crumble and you've wasted your time— time better spent fixing the original issue.
If you have tuning problems, don’t let this discourage you— intonation is something that really can be improved with practice with strategies like playing with drones, singing, focusing on playing slowly and just listening to your sound.
Those are two of the most common beginner mistakes, but you may be curious to know what kind of issues are facing violinist later on when they have the technical basics of vibrato down.
Intermediate vibrato mistakes
Mistake #3: Tension problems (intermediate-advanced edition)
Tension problems are not just for beginners.
Remember, tension leads to that strained and forced sound which causes you to lose the expressive control over your vibrato.
This gets more difficult to fix the later you’re into your violin studies. Things got frustrating for me when I was a late-intermediate student in my early teens and wanting to play with beautiful sound. I had some lyrical pieces that I had to audition with, but I was stuck with this very narrow sounding vibrato.
I had to really take a step back and re-learn all the movements properly, which took way more time than I wanted.
So learn from my mistakes and address this in your early years.
Mistake #4: Inconsistent vibrato
Another mistake that violinists make when they are playing with vibrato a little bit later down the road is inconsistent vibrato.
This can be a mix of an inconsistent speed or width, and all of these are kind of byproducts of not having control over the technique.
When you don't have control, then you're not able to use this as an effective tool of expression because you're not going to be able to produce the exact sound that you have in your head.
You’ll be at the mercy of whatever your fingers feel like doing on whatever particular note that you're playing.
Why does this happen?
When it comes to this technique, there are ways of practicing that by slowing everything down, generally this happened when the violinist is practicing too fast and isn't moving from the right muscle group when it comes to the vibrato.
The solution
They probably also have tension problems, maybe some little setup tweaks to be done, but generally this can really be worked on by slowing things down and practicing with a wider vibrato so that you have full control over the technique.
Advanced vibrato mistakes
Mistake #5: Lack of variation in vibrato
To contrast our last problem of an inconsistent sound which is generally completely unintentional, we also have the issue of lack of variation.
Once you develop a consistent vibrato, it’s easy to apply that exact same sound to every note. This quickly gets boring for the listener, so you need to start working on widening your vibrato palette to include a variation of speed and amplitudes.
This will allow you to have full control over your vibrato, and get each note to sound exactly how you want it.
For more examples, read last week’s blog post on how to prepare for vibrato where I analyze Sarah Chang playing the Tchaikovsky violin concerto.
How to work on expanding your range of vibrato?
You may be wondering — how do you work on this when you are at the stage where you don't yet have full control over all of the different factors that go into developing your vibrato palette?
Just like with anything in violin, practicing with some sort of limitations is super helpful.
When I'm working on this, I'll try to focus on exactly the sound that I want and try to get as close to that as possible,
I’ll then try the same thing in a different way, over and over in different contexts. Over time with some practice, you start to develop a contrast in your sound an overall more variation in your virbrato.
Practice active listening
This is why listening practice is so important, especially if you are a beginner. Developing the ability to hear something and then to then replicate it on your instrument is integral to controlling your sound and expressing yourself on the instrument.
Mistake #6: Using too much vibrato
Another vibrato mistake that advanced violinists make, which may surprise you if you're just starting out on the technique, is using too much vibrato. If you rely too heavily on vibrato, you will lose focus of the other tools of expression like bow choreography, which will lead to a flat sound.
You may have the most beautiful, controlled, varied vibrato in the world, but if you're not doing anything interesting with your bow, your playing is going to reflect that.
Remember that vibrato is among multiple tools of expression that we have in our toolbox as violinists.
So it's important not to forget to vary your bow speed as much as you're varying your vibrato speed and to pay attention to how the two work together.
Something that I practice a lot is to play passages without any vibrato at all. Once you get comfortable with vibrato, it's really hard to turn it off. It's something that we play with all the time that you really internalize as a violinist.
It’s easy to put it on autopilot, which can lead violinists to rely too heavily on their vibrato to express themselves and to color the sound where a lot of musical interest should come from the bow.
A good violinist should sound beautiful and expressive without any vibrato at all, just through use of their bow speed, pressure, and articulation
Vibrato should really just enhance the work the bow is doing— it’s the cherry on top to a beautiful tone, solid intonation, bow control, and good rhythm. Those are the fundamentals of playing violin, and vibrato is going to enhance and not replace any of these things.
Mistake #7: Anachronistic vibrato
The last vibrato mistake that intermediate-advanced violinists make is playing vibrato in the wrong style— one that is not appropriate for the era of the piece that they're playing.
In Western classical music, there’s a certain style the listener expects to hear a piece— it should correspond to the era of the composition.
It’s part of our job as classical violinist to be aware of all of these different styles, and to know which style of vibrato to use.
Believe it or not, things get a little controversial in the classical violin world of exactly how one should vibrate when playing a certain style of music. Let’s take Baroque music, for example. Some people people believe that vibrato shouldn’t be played at all in this time period, whereas some people will use a lot.
In addition, the perception of how much vibrato is “appropriate” for a particular composition has changed through the years.
Modern vs. old-school vibrato examples
Listen to these two examples:
Here, Yehudi Menuhin plays this Bach Sonata with lots of wide vibrato— something most violinists wouldn’t do today. His playing is musical and beauitful, but this is regarded as an old-school interpretation of Bach.
Now, listen to this more contemporary interpretation by a baroque violinist. Notice that the vibrato is sparse, and used as an ornament rather than on each note.
I admit I am comparing apples to oranges here because Menuhin is playing in a more modern style in a modern violin, and the second recording is a Baroque musician playing on a period violin. So they're not even really the same instrument even tuned in the same way, but I wanted to show two really extreme examples so that you can really hear the difference.
Most violinists today play somewhere between the two extremes on this spectrum, and each will develop their own style.
Neither of these interpretations are mistakes, but rather examples to get you thinking about styles. Things are more subjective the deeper you get into your violin studies!