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Why You Shouldn't Use Vibrato:
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Why You Shouldn't Use Vibrato: Why You Should Always Use VibratoThe following text comes from Foundations in Singing by Van A. Christy, Wm. C. Brown Publishing.
Vibrato
A student who was searching for words asked me, "What do you call it when a voice kind of
waves up and down and it's nice?" Answer: vibrato, one of the qualities we listen for in a voice,
whether we realize it or not. Very few voices use vibrato all the time, but when we hear it, we feel that a voice is free
and relaxed, warm and expressive.
When we hear a tone with vibrato, we think we are hearing a certain ptich. Actually, we are hearing the voice rise above and fall below
the pitch. At the same time, the volume and quality vary as well. Vibrato is such a natural part of a freely produced voice that
we are likely to think that a voice without it is "no good".
An attractive vibrato occurs at a rate of six or seven cycles per second. It often carries the tone 1/4 tone above and below
the basic tone. As with the other vital attributes of a good voice, almost everyone can develop a
pleasing vibrato. (Some individuals have difficulty recognizing vibrato, as musicologists have found.
Even some accomplished singers who have a perfectly normal vibrato are unable to say whether they have one or not.)
Some voices have vibrato from childhood and are never without it. They would do well to expiriment with
the straight tone, deliberately removing the vibrato, primarily by imagining a tone without
vibrato. Some conductors may ask you to eliminate vibrato for a particular style, and you
need this kind of control.
Other voices could use vibrato but inhibit it. The following are some reasons I have heard:
"The choir director said my vibrato made my voice stick out." Translation: One mature voice
among a group of immature voices caused a problem that the director didn't know how to solve.
It would be better to improve the weaker voices than to stifle the one good voice.
"I don't want my voice to sound 'operatic' and affected." Dont worry, you won't go overboard.
Try singing with vibrato and ask your friends if they like it. Also listen thoughtfully to your favorite
singers; you will hear some vibrato in almost any style, not just opera.
With an attitude change, such students sometimes begin to use vibrato immediately. All they
need is to give themselves permission.
If you have nver experienced a tone with vibrato, it may take a while before you can achieve
the right balance of energy and relaxation to allow vibrato to occur spontaneously. When you
hear vibrato come into the voice on any single tone, take note of it and encourage it to reappear.
Singers use vibrato differently in different styles; some country singers seldom use it, while some
gospel and blues singers use more than a half tone. Jazz stylists, particularly, add and
subtract vibrato at will as part of their expressive technique.
Sometimes we hear a vibrato that is too wide, too fast, or too slow, or one that pulses hard and
soft like a bleat. Like too much of any good thing, all such excesses are unpleasant. We
use the word tremolo to decribe any of them. Tremolos can usually be corrected by improving
improving breath support and lerning the right balance of vitality and relaxation in singing.
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