Hello and welcome! In this video we are going to be looking at vibrato. Now vibrato shows up everywhere.
So as you can see vibrato shows up in different styles and it shows up in different intensities And one of my favorite things about vibrato is it actually is a result of balanced singing So when you see those power notes or those gentle little moments at the end of the phrases where you get that little Weaver in pitch, that singer's done the work and they're singing balanced. For me, one of my favorite ways to use vibrato is in these sort of delicate moments. Wise men say.
So you can kind of hear my voice moving back and forth like that. That is vibrato. So vibrato is an oscillation of pitch above and below, or below, the note that you're singing. So, ahhhh, you can kind of hear that.
hear that up and down. That's simply what's happening. And I'm not forcing this to happen because I'm relaxed.
This is occurring naturally. And that's really, really important to note because you can tense and try to get a sort of like a forced vibrato and you'll end up sounding like a goat. That's not how you want to sound when you're singing.
You want a nice, natural sounding vibrato. So the trick here is going to be to get yourself relaxed and really, really balanced. And so you can allow space and room for that natural vibrato to sort of kick in.
So one of my favorite exercises to practice and get used to this feeling is who. So we're going be singing short little staccato whoo-whoo-whoo-whoo and then we're gonna hold the last note. And we're going to wait for that vibrato, that natural movement to kick in.
And this may not happen your first few tries. You may have to return to this, but that's okay. This is what practice is all about. So one of the things to keep in mind as you're doing this exercise, and I'm going to guide you through a couple passes at this.
We'll do it together, is you want to sort of have like a hootie sound. You don't want your larynx tensing up. You don't want this creeping up on you, you want to kind of think...
Like Patrick from SpongeBob, like kind of silly. So just slightly like dopey. And you don't want to be too light.
You don't want to, hoo, hoo, hoo. You'll really struggle to find your balance if you do that. You need to really like go for each and every note, not tense, not relaxed, and with that dopey stance.
So I'll do it again. It's going to sound like this. And there it is.
So let's do a couple of these together. I'm going to move down. And you can kind of hear that back and forth there again.
And we'll move back up. And we'll do one more. Hoo, And there it is. Now once you get comfortable with that, you can actually play with when you allow that vibrato to kick in.
So for me, if I lean in just a little bit, add a little bit more, I don't want to use the word tension, but it's just a little bit more intensity, it prevents that vibrato from kicking in, and then I can back it off a little bit, and then the vibrato kicks in. So I can choose where in that phrase I want to hear See right where I relaxed? That's where it kicked in. So take your time with this.
We've got a download for you that plays the scale so you can be practicing this at home. Make sure you're staying relaxed because that's going to be the number one ticket to getting your vibrato. But you have to make sure you're staying relaxed. sure you're having a connected tone.
You're not like, whoo, whoo, whoo, that's too relaxed. Now, if you're still struggling with this, one of the things you can do to sort of try to teach your body how vibrato might feel so then it can more easily find it in those natural moments. is just moving your voice intentionally up and down.
You might feel kind of silly and it might feel a little bit strange at first, but that's not the end result, that ooh, but it does teach your body, it sort of gives you a... A reference point so that when you're in that relaxed, you can bring that to mind and your muscles will maybe be a little bit more cooperative in helping you achieve that. One more thing that you can do if you're still struggling is you can place.
Place your hands sort of just under your ribs and gently push in and out as you're singing a note. Now this will only work if you're not too tense through your core. You need to kind of be relaxed here as well.
So I'm going to sustain a note and then you're going to see me pushing in and out here gently. I feel very ridiculous doing this. But that's okay because it's helping me help you!
So if this helps you to achieve the feeling of what vibrato might feel like, just so you can practice it and get used to that, give it a try, and then... think of it as this as training wheels. Once you've got it, don't go back to this because you don't want to be on a stage like pushing your abdomen in and out. That would be super weird, but you can use it to help you get to where you're trying to go. So now you've got a few tools that you can use to help you find and sing.
with vibrato. So we've got that little scale, we've got that intentional movement up and down of pitch, and we've got using your hands on your abdomen to kind of gently push in and out to get that sensation. So some final thoughts. I would love for you to do the exercise, see if you can discover some vibrato in your voice, and then implement it on a more gentle song.
I know vibrato can be super impressive on those big power notes, but for now, while you're finding your way with this, find a song that's sweet and lovely and try to use your vibrato at the end. of a phrase sort of like I did here so I'm using a relaxed delicate song I'm really allowing myself to feel the emotion because emotion will help to trigger that vibrato and I'm practicing it there and when you're comfortable here that's when you can start working on those bigger notes like which Whitney and practice your vibrato on like a and right I'm relaxed and I get the sound and then I can let the vibrato happen but if you're not doing the work on the easier more gentle less pressure notes first you might find that you end up getting a tension vibrato on those high notes and that's not what we want we want to build a great foundation so that you can be in control of your vibrato. You can use it when you would like to, when you choose to, and you can use it to enrich and create a bigger impact with what it is that you're singing. So I would love to hear from you. Comment below, let me know what your favorite singer is that uses vibrato.
I know for me whenever I hear Whitney or Eva Cassidy I'm listening for those vibrato moments. But I would love to hear from you. What's your favorite example of vibrato? Let me know how this goes and happy practicing! Thank you.