Vibrato For Recorders, How to teach? Options

[Alison]

This sounds like a silly question, but does anyone know what I am actually doing when I do vibrato on a recorder? I'm not even sure what part of my body is making the wobble. I just think it and it happens, but that's not much use when I'm trying to teach it to a pupil who thinks it and nothing happens! Can anyone help? Thanks.

[sarah-flute]

Not sure how helpful this is - vibrato seems to come naturally for me when support etc is working right. With recorder I have more trouble with it happening when I don't want it (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif) but it does seem to come from the support muscles. So maybe try working on that rather than directly on vibrato?

Hope some recorder specialists see this soon (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[anacrusis]

I'm not sure I'd want actively to teach it - I've been working at steadying the sound my pupil produces, as she had a fast-beating regular vibrato. Having played duets with someone who has a marked and insistent vibrato - it's most off-putting, and it makes the wonderful difference tones go away too (Tartini tones, YAP tells me).
I do use vibrato, but only very sparingly, to give colour to a long held note, perhaps, or because I've been told to by an avant-garde composer (have moaned long and loud about the process of learning Hans-Martin Linde's "Fantasien & Scherzi"). For this last piece, I had to do formally pulsed vibrato, with even the rhythm of the vibrato being dictated on the score - crotchet, triplets x 2 etc., and its volume - start loud and fast and fade to slow and quiet. Learning this piece, however much it annoyed me, did improve the quality of my vibrato a lot - I started with a regular beat - haaaaaah, on a long note, then "laughed", hah-ah-ah with the same note, and played about with speeds and amplitude. It was the first time that I consciously used breath vibrato (as opposed to finger vibrato) since starting lessons four years ago - and "Fantasien & Scherzi" is a dipABRSM/ATCL- level piece. The thing to avoid, really, is a totally even vibrato - if it can be controlled and varied, it is a useful tool, if it just buzzes away by itself, it's annoying to listen to after a while.

[sarah-flute]

I was playing duets with a friend, flute and recorder, the other day, and we got difference tones! I was most excited! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/offTopic.gif) sorry (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif)

[Anthony Purnell]

"There is conflicting evidence about the use of vibrato by singers and instrumentalists during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,. It is probably wisest to reserve it for special occasions, treating it as an ornament. Its use would then be restricted to climactic notes in a phrase ... , and it should not therefore usually be used in the last note of a cadence." Anthony Rowland-Jones, Playing Recorder Sonatas, (Oxford, 1992)p40

It is customary to play recorders without vibrato unless it is specifically marked or requested. This is unlikely until a fairly advanced level is reached. In the baroque repertoire it is more likely that "Flattement" or fingered vibrato will be required. Vibrato on the recorder is used as an expressive device which can be deployed from time to time rather than as a constant feature. In consort playing it is nearly always best avoided entirely and attention given instead to good intonation.

Anthony Purnell

[andante_in_c]

I also feel it is best avoided where possible. I do have to concentrate sometimes to stop myself switching on my flute vibrato instinctively, especially in mid-twentieth century repertoire like the Rubbra Coeurs Desoles or the Berkeley Sonatina, the latter being especially difficult because it is part of my flute repertoire. I suppose the one advantage of being a flautist is that I would have no trouble with the technique anacrusis talks about for the Linde. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Alison]

"There is conflicting evidence about the use of vibrato by singers and instrumentalists during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,. It is probably wisest to reserve it for special occasions, treating it as an ornament. Its use would then be restricted to climactic notes in a phrase ... , and it should not therefore usually be used in the last note of a cadence." Anthony Rowland-Jones, Playing Recorder Sonatas, (Oxford, 1992)p40

It is customary to play recorders without vibrato unless it is specifically marked or requested. This is unlikely until a fairly advanced level is reached. In the baroque repertoire it is more likely that "Flattement" or fingered vibrato will be required. Vibrato on the recorder is used as an expressive device which can be deployed from time to time rather than as a constant feature. In consort playing it is nearly always best avoided entirely and attention given instead to good intonation.

Anthony Purnell

I know there are differing opinions about the authenticity of vibrato on a recorder. I am not talking about mega wobbly stuff, and I would certainly avoid it in consorts. BUT a little gentle vibrato helps the tone and can add colour to certain passages. I was reading something the other day, I think by Edgar Hunt, about how vibrato is used to give the illusion of playing in tune when actually playing sharp in loud passages (interesting stuff).

Do singers know of the Rowland-Jones quote? The people I've heard singing seventeenth & eighteenth century music have vibratoed like anything!

Anyway, apart from debates over its uses, I should still like to know which bit of me is making it.

Learning this piece, however much it annoyed me, did improve the quality of my vibrato a lot - I started with a regular beat - haaaaaah, on a long note, then "laughed", hah-ah-ah with the same note, and played about with speeds and amplitude.

Is this a good way to learn normal vibrato? This implies the wobble comes from the diaphragm? I'm confused - aren't there any singers who can explain it to me?

[anacrusis]

It's the way Galway teaches vibrato - not that I'd ever aspire to his version of it, I find it pretty awful (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ill.gif) . Like you, some vibrato simply happens for me, and I'd struggle to express where it comes from, but I do think that even vibrato from other levels than the diaphragm would still need some support from that deep level, if you don't want to compromise tone. Using the method I described allowed me to add in voluntary vibrato to baroque music, sparingly as mentioned before. Having said that, when I played at a music festival recently, the adjudicator said she thought I ought to use more (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif) .

I've been lucky enough to have heard some very accomplished singers performing 18th and 19th century music, and they have sung pretty pure, again only using vibrato for colour. Leopold Mozart complained about excessive vibrato usage, Quantz advised against using it much - and such recordings as can be found from the late 19th century, even, suggest that extensive and heavy use of vibrato in orchestral and vocal music is really a 20th century phenomenon. Some musicians would not have it any other way, but I like to hear the notes without a haze of surrounding microtonal fuzz (there always seems to be a pitch variation as well as a volume one)- my poor brain can't find the tune so easily, otherwise.

What level is your pupil at, by the way?

[andante_in_c]

The normal vibrato used by flautists is diaphragammatic, and learned (if it has to be learned) in the was James Galway demonstrates. It's not the same as the natural vibrato produced by singers; the chief difference being that the speed of the flute vibrato is under the player's control and is therefore used to colour notes differently.

And anacrusis is right that it is a comparatively recent development: flute vibrato is really only became fashionable in the twentieth century.

It is an interesting question, and one that begins to concern me as my singing vibrato develops. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)

[Alison]

I am beginning to wonder if we are all talking about different things. The kind of vibrato I mean isn't like the heavy warbling sound some singers and flautists make. It's more like a warming of the tone. I was encouraged to play like that when I started having recorder lessons, by which time I was playing grade 6 pieces. My pupil is grade 5.

I found a passage in Edgar Hunt's book in which he says vibrato on the recorder should be made in the throat, not the diaphragm (although it will of course still need diaphragm support). But I'm still not much closer to knowing how I do it myself!

Keep the replies coming - they make interesting reading.

[maggiemay]

I like to hear the notes without a haze of surrounding microtonal fuzz
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)
wonderful !

[petrat]

In recorder playing the general rule is that you don't use any vibrato unless it is as a special effect. In some modern works it is acceptable but again as an effect only and not constant. Even when it is used in this way a player must be able to vary the intensity of the vibrato. It is done in the throat by using a series of H H H H H patterns. A singer's vibrato comes naturally when the other things are right such as good support and breathing. If a singer used throat vibrato he or she will sound like a goat!.
If you need to teach it ask the pupil to do a series of H H H sounds to crotchets, then quavers and so on always keeping it under full control. Otherwise keep the notes straight.
Singers can switch their vibrato on and off to suit the piece also. A constant non-stop wobble is not a sign of a good technique.