I will apologise now as I expect this subject has come up many many times as each of you reach this stage in your learning but IT'S SO FRUSTRATINGLY DIFFICULT !!!

I have been learning violin for a few years as an adult, I am now getting more into vibrato. I have been doing various excerises to try and get my wrist, arm and the mechanics of my body moving correctly but still only manage a very pathetic little vibrato on one or two fingers in only 3rd or 4th position. To be honest I am not even sure you would call it an actual vibrato

Any tips on excerice or technic will be gratefully received, I have trawled the internet and have found one or two helpful videos but think it is a case of the more tips I can try the better.
I wish I had taken this up when I was very young and all this would have been soooo much easier, wouldn't it?
I can do the right movement fine when not actually holding the violin

Can you do it holding the violin but without bowing? (i.e. just doing the movement without actually playing anything). This is how my violin teacher started with me.

I originally did cello at school and, on cello, I learnt vibrato by doing it on my arm (i.e. by using my R arm as a cello neck). I've transferred this across to violin (which I started learning last May) and have done some work on the vibrato movement by putting my right hand where the violin neck would be and doing vibrato on this. Although violin vibrato is different to cello vibrato, I've found that doing it against my hand is something which I can practice at odd minutes when I'm at my desk etc. I've obviously only been learning the violin a few months, so am not very experienced, but I seem to be heading the right way with vibrato (I'm now allowed to add it to pieces ) - although I find the 1st and 4th fingers harder to control and get even compared to the others.

I'm sure someone who's more experienced will be along later with some proper advice for you.

I'm not sure if vibrato would have come any more easily if you'd learnt as a child. It seems to come easily to some people (or some children) but not to others, and as an adult you're probably in a better position for finding coping strategies for the things you find more difficult - e.g. in your case vibrato.

Hi Flossie
Thanks for your reply, I think you are right I need to spend more time just doing the action with violin and not worrying about bowing too and hopefully it will get there. I do find that I am naturally making an attempt at vibrato while practising but must not allow myself to get so diverted and distractedby the vibrato issues that the practise sessions get wasted

The book Viva Vibrato is very good...

I learned vibrato as an adult. I did the exercises faithfully for weeks and weeks with no improvement. The breakthrough thing for me was hearing 'It's a WAVE not a SHAKE' but I am sure it was the combination of this switching my brain on as well as having already taught the muscles in my finger/wrist/arm/elbow/shoulder/back what they needed to do...do make sure you are not tensing your shoulder because that seems to lock the whole thing up.

Thinking that the arm is cooked spaghetti rather than spaghetti in the packet helps me too!

I learnt the violin as an adult. I always wonder whether it's easier as a child as may be the arms won't be as stiff. I seemed to manage some sort of vibrato easily but lacking in the quality. Surprisingly, the vibrato is acceptable in my Gr 8 exam. I'm still struggling with the last finger.