anyone got any tips for someone who has been trying to get vibrato for ta least a year!!?? i dunno it just dosent work!!! And its not from not trying!!! Plus i have my g7 violin in march so it would be kinda nice to have it matered by then.... HELP!!!!! luv Emyxxx

Have a look at these threads:

• http://forums.abrsm.org/index.php?showtopic=14979&hl=
• http://forums.abrsm.org/index.php?showtopic=10717&hl=
• http://forums.abrsm.org/index.php?showtopic=2893&hl=

If you do a search on 'Vibrato' in the Viva Strings forum, you may find more threads relevant to your query .

Car Expert

How about a lesson specially on nothing but vibrato with AmandaL?

That'll be great! Put it on youtube or something. *grin*

The thing with doing vibrato is, the more you want to do it, the more it's not going to work......just relax and enjoy doing it, then it might work!

Complete relaxation is the key to successful vibrato. Any tension whatsoever will simply kill it stone dead.

Good idea, but not very practical unfortunately. Emy lives all the way over in Ireland.

Sorry if im cutting in between this thread. I can do arm vibrato with the scroll leaning against the wall, but when i take it off the wall, i cant seem to vibrato and bow at the same time. Any advice? Thanks
And sorry again for splitting the discussion!

Don't press your finger so hard on the string I guess. Try taking your thumb off the neck when you try. After you've gotten it, place your thumb back on lightly. This ensures your thumb doesn't grip the neck. It works for me sometimes.

I have posted this piece before. I hope people find it useful

VIBRATO IN UNDER FIVE MINUTES

Have the student do the following steps.

1. With no instrument or bow, make a fist with left hand.

2. Teacher makes a target with palm of hand for student to punch (students love this part)

3. Now have student punch with the BACK of hand. Punch repeatedly--2-3 times per second. Motion will come from whole arm; wrist does NOT bend.

4. Put violin in playing position. Pull left thumb a little under the neck so that the side of the index finger is NOT TOUCHING the neck by a distance of the thickness of a business card. You will need to check this CLEARANCE as the process goes forward. The index cannot grab the neck. This step is very important.

5. Put 2nd finger on F# on the D string. No other fingers. 2nd finger works best.

6. Now recreate the PUNCHING motion. If the student forgets, go back to steps 1 through 3.

7. Teacher can draw the bow while student vibrates. Student can hold the lower bout of the violin with the right hand to steady everything.

8. There are only three controls to vibrato: ON/OFF, SPEED, and DEPTH. If it stops, start it again. Ideal speed for early vibrato is 3 times per second. Depth refers to the pitch variation; you want enough range to be noticed but not enough to cause nausea.

9. When the student begins to bow him/herself, other problems will occur--mostly about separating the oscillating motion of the left arm from the smooth motion of the right arm. It is good to get the vibrato motion right with teacher bowing before having the student try to do both.

10. Leaning the scroll of the violin against the wall helps steady everything when then student goes solo.

11. Most common mistakes: the CLEARANCE (step 4) and trying to bend the left wrist. Recreate the punching motion with the back of the hand (step 3)

This is ARM VIBRATO. Every good player can do both ARM and WRIST vibrato. You need ARM for big and bravura passages. Use WRIST for soft tender moments. BTW arm vibrato is impossible in very high positions. I have had good luck starting from the ARM approach. This method avoids the icky little fast, nervous result and also the totally unwanted Finger Vibrato.

I have used this approach in a class situation and in the studio. If you do the steps, I can guarantee you'll have a vibrato in under 5 minutes.

Gabriel Villasurda
www.stringskills.com