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My vibrato isn’t really going all that well at the mo .. just not feeling motivated. I know it’s not an over night thing but I’m finding it hard speeding it up and to even practice it. Does anyone know how many wobbles you are supposed to do per click on the metronome if it’s going at 60? I haven’t exactly practiced it much got other things going on but I’d appreciate any ideas. I’ll put a vid of how fast I can go in my blog . It’s pretty inconsistent as well.. or should I put the vid here ?
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Must admit I didnt use a metronome, I just concentrated more than anything on keeping my hand absolutely loose and relaxed, which as you probably now know isnt easy, I even practiced a lot not having my thumb touching the neck at all, I dont know much but I think it just takes time, it has with me anyway, keep at it and it will devlope on its own naturally.
Try to get your finger tips to collapse naturally without forcing them which is a lot easier if your hand is very, very relaxed, dont fall into the trap that a lot of people do moving the wrist back and forwards while the hand doesnt really move, this gives the illusion of vibrato but produces virtually no discernible sound and is wrong. The hand basically pulls back while the fingers stay on the fingerboard in the same spot, this lengthens the fingers and causes the tips to faĺl. Not much use to you but then again I dont know a great deal, except what worked for me, and pass it on:)
Cant beat a sunny day
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Ok Stringy thanks. It’s weird , if I have a bit of a break from it I find it’s improved very odd!!!
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@Katie L -
This might help.
I'm going to use this video after I take bit of a break - actually getting to where I'm even hating the word, right now. I can only focus on one thing at a time & I don't want vibrato to be it.
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Thanks Emily I so hear you !!
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If you have a guitar or a ukulele or similar, I would seriously recommend you practise vibrato on it!
ELCBK said
I can only focus on one thing at a time & I don't want vibrato to be it.
Like I said once before, the best answer may be just to concentrate on the music and only use vibrato on the long notes. It will come eventually.
And like I also said before, Galamian's advice is play E on the A string using your second finger with your hand resting on the violin body and practise it normal speed.
Andrew
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Sometimes I do that but not regularly so will do now thank you
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@Gordon Shumway -
Like I said once before, the best answer may be just to concentrate on the music and only use vibrato on the long notes. It will come eventually.
That's all I'm doing right now - intonation, bowing & phrasing are more important to me. I do keep in mind how vibrato is used in Classical Violin playing, but for my 'Fiddle' playing - it's really just another ornament.
It's pretty amusing, as I look back, that about every 6 months I find myself thinking, "wow, I'm really just starting to hear everything" - 3 years coming up, soon. (lol)
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@Katie M - Definitely don't think about wobbles per click. If you want to speed up your vibrato, one if the biggest things you should think of is decreasing the width of your vibrato. The other big factor is perhaps more hand or wrist vs arm.
If you're up to it, post a video of your latest vibrato efforts and I'll give you my two cents.....
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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I agree about keeping a metronome out of vibrato. When I was teaching Thomas vibrato less than a year ago, you should have seen it, hahaha. He was shaking the entire violin. I just kept drilling into him to VIBRATE his hand rather than move it. It took him about 3 weeks or so for it to calm down and it finally did. I think it is just going to take practice and practice and more practice. Thomases motivation was the sheer beauty of the sound of vibrato.
Jim(Thomases Dad)
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I'm definitely taking this great advice!
Can't tell you how relieved I am that I don't have to torture myself with a metronome!
Thanks for the great thread, @Katie L !
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Yes I was getting a bit obsessed wasting time changing my metro e so I’ve ditched that now.. also I’m not for a second I’d saying this is correct but I think that it has helped me to not go from third position straight to first but just slightly away from third.
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There's an interesting point about metronome usage. On vcom there's this: -
@Cotton "Slow technique does not equal fast technique, and the only way to play fast is to practise fast. I spent so many hours trying to play fast by focusing on tiny movements and slowly crawling the metronome up to speed... it doesn't work."
Me: In the past I've never used a metronome while playing any instrument, but I am finding it useful for violin and I know some people increment metronome speed too gradually. I've been finding with some fast Handel bariolage recently that a couple of good, healthy jumps are what is required.
And I think this could be a source of difficulty for you, Katie. I said somewhere else, don't start on slow vibrato and speed up (too) gradually, start on fast - the slow vibrato is the hardest. Practise it after you can do fast vibrato.
Andrew
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Thank you for your comment Gordon and for reminding me to practice it … will see how I get on tomoz 😬 this is a different approach that I’m excited to try.
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I had a break from vibrato because it was dragging me down a bit then today I had a Beth from violin lab video on in the background (not while I was practicing- I wouldn’t do that ) and I heard her saying about speeding it up and how you get tension. This happens to me. She was saying not to force it and the muscles will then want to speed up on their own. So I had a go this eve and I actually got on ok and didn’t concentrate on speeding up I just practiced what I could already do in third and first position. I didnt get any tension and I concentrated on not pressing too hard. I can do about 8 or 9 oscillations in a slow bow so I just did that sometimes I might have done 10. But anyway I felt a bit happier I’ll try to do it every time I practice now.
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