aw well i have been having singing lessons for almost a year now, i'm currently working towards my grade 5. I just can't do vibrato.. are there any tips? does it come naturally?
thomxxx

The vibrato should come naturally.

Things to make sure you do: Breath properly - from the diaphragm, support your notes (diaphragm again) and make sure you have good posture.

If you are doing all of these things, then the vibrato should come in time. You may even be doing it now, and not realising it! Just please do not do a false vibrato - it will sound very fake!

aw thankyou:) for those who plate flute aswell, is it the same principal?
thomxxx

Thomxxx, vibrato happens when you allow your whole body to resonate. And that in turn happens when you don't tense your muscles up to make your singing happen, but rather relax yourself and let your singing happen.

That's not to say that some of your muscles won't go into tension, the lower abdominal ones will, but that will happen as a consequence of the singing, not an attempt to cause it.

I can kill my vibrato stone dead by trying to hold my breath, adopt an artificial posture and force my voice to happen. It revives when I just allow my breathing to happen naturally and relax and sing.

I started the flute about a year ago, and got a vibrato almost instantly as a result of my singing, so I think so... this may be a result of my singing teacher always ensuring that my breathing is correct.

Not only will it sound fake, but it is also harmful to the voice. Let your own natural vibrato develop through correct technique. Killing vibrato as katyjay is talking about is one thing - that's done for effect and expression sometimes, but ADDING vibrato is a no-no.

Like Katyjay says, Vibrato happens when you allow the resonance to happen and sing with your whole body. I too can kill and control my vibrato through breath control.

I endorse what AnnC says about forcing vibrato it can harm. Also Children and young people do not naturally produce vibrato in the same way as adults do.

I spend ages getting people's technique honed so that they only produce their own natural vibrato rather than some forced stuff!

I have been having singing lessons for 22 months now (nearly 2 years) and I only got vibrato in May this year so nearly a year and a half after singing.
It is the same principal on the flute but is easier to do because you are not physically trying to produce the sound as well!
A lot more support is required for vibrato in singing because of the nice clear tone that you want to be able to produce

Don't worry about it. Also, bear in mind that for some people (my wife and I included) have an instinctive tendency to switch off any singer who uses vibrato all the time. It should be an embellishment (likewise on violin; see the Spohr and Joachim Violin Methods).

Um..nearly ALL voices have natural vibrato. Those without are very rare. Emma Kirkby springs to mind as having very little.
It's not meant to be an embellishment. But if you notice it enough to want to switch off, chances are it's excessive.

That's a matter of opinion, and a lot of singers agree with you. A lot of musicians (distinction intended), including Emma Kirkby (to judge from her recordings) and two of the great violinists of the 19th C., don't.

Yes, and there is a lot of it about. I find it interesting to listen to the (few remaining) recordings of the early years of the 20th C., such as those of Patti and Galli-Curci. To my ear, they used an acceptable level of vibrato, much less than that of most female operatic singers of the present day.

It is true that voices have or will develop a vibrato. If you compare Emma Kirkby's voice now to her early recordings you will hear a marked change. Many singers are able to alter their singing styles to suit their music. I would not sing a Handel aria in the same way as I would sing a Mendelssohn one. Styles of performing alter too of course. If they did not we would have no developments in the field of music at all. The instrument that Louis Spohr knew was different from the violin of today. Therefore the method of playing will be different in some ways too. I agree that some singers have a heavier vibrato that others, sometimes used to an unacceptable level, but it is present in all voices to some degree.

I reckon that applies to just about every professional female singer out there - sorry. Men are nowhere near as bad, for some reason.

Are you really saying that the operatic vibrato that most of the general population loathe so much (it's at least very much an acquired taste) is entirely natural?? I got to Trinity Performer's Certificate level and never developed operatic vibrato - and never wanted to, which is one reason why I didn't take my singing any further (though the main reason was that I seem to have a very limited lung capacity and I just can't do the necessary long passages even though I know I am breathing correctly)

Liz

Clearly it's neither natural nor even necessary, since in 1910 the best singers used very little, just enough to warm the sound. My theory is that orchestras have got much louder since then, with the advent of metal strings and wide bore trombones and horns from the US, so that. in Wagner especially, singers use wide vibrato in a effort to distinguish the sound of the voice from that of the orchestral instruments providing similar frequencies. The way in which vibrato helps the ear separate the voice from other sounds is a known acoustic effect. It is less necessary in Puccini,[1] since he regarded an opera orchestra as something to show off the voice, and orchestrated appropriately, whereas Wagner wrote orchestral music with added voices. To be fair, Wagner's invention of the orchestral pit (at the Festspielhaus) with the brass well back from the opening to the auditorium,[2] coped with the balance problem in his own day, but he was unaware of the monstrous instruments that would be invented in the 20th C.

[1] AFAIK, the original "bel canto" composers, Donizetti and Bellini used smaller orchestras.
[2] The opening is about 1/3 the area of the whole pit.

Just a thought, It may be their way of filling the gap left by the Piano.

However I have just recorded some unaccompanied practice to check the tone and vibrato levels, and to get a genuine idea of what I really sound like. I do not intend to switch an vibrato off when Singing accompanied.

Thankyou for your posts, they have been very helpful - i was wandering if there are any technical, or tone improving exercises i could do? i have a really weak voice.. it's quite airy?
sorry for so many questions
thomasine x