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more vibrato
Study by the violin lab explaining how vibrato works
Topic Rating: 5 Topic Rating: 5 Topic Rating: 5 Topic Rating: 5 Topic Rating: 5 Topic Rating: 5 (4 votes) 
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Shane "Chicken" Wang

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November 24, 2018 - 6:27 pm
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Worth a watch to understand better how vibrato works.

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Mark
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November 24, 2018 - 7:41 pm
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Very interesting, thanks, Mark I had not seen this.

The software she's using is very interesting to use and watch your intonenation with as you play.

 

Mark

Master the Frog and you have mastered the bow.

Albert Sammons

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bocaholly
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Very interesting video, indeed. Even if I'm not learning vibrato yet, what Beth demonstrated makes a ton of sense. Now what do I do when I do start learning vibrato and my teacher tells me to start below the pitch, vibrate up to it and no further? LOL.

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Irv
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I have a question for bocaholly.  Is Beth using the same chin rest as the one you just modified for your violin?  It sure looks similar.

Success is the progressive realisation of a worthy ideal. —Earl Nightingale.

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Shane "Chicken" Wang

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bocaholly said
Very interesting video, indeed. Even if I'm not learning vibrato yet, what Beth demonstrated makes a ton of sense. Now what do I do when I do start learning vibrato and my teacher tells me to start below the pitch, vibrate up to it and no further? LOL.  

If the video is correct, she'll never hear the difference.

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bocaholly
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@Shane "Chicken" Wang Correct... assuming I can keep my mouth shut cow-fingerscrossed

@Irv Good catch. I think you're right. She might have the Wave 2 which has a little less of a ridge on top than mine but the general shape is about right and it sure looks like it has that African padauk wood color to it.

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mookje
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November 29, 2018 - 9:50 am
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@Shane "Chicken" Wang, interesting video, thanks for sharing!

 Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about dancing in the rain!!

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Shane "Chicken" Wang

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I found this video this morning on vibrato and the way she explains about the knocking, something clicked for me. I understand that in the video she covers weeks, months, and years of practice.

Someone said that learning left and right hand was like driving a stick shift. I have trained truck drivers, welders, pipe fitters, forklift drivers and maintenance men. Some analogies hit home with me and remind me that teachers and people are different, not necessarily good or bad, but different. Sometimes it just takes a measure of time for our brains to process information and allow that "click" to happen.

We learn from repetition, repetition of action, and repetition of correct information. Since we are all different, We all learn in different ways, at different speeds, in different modes, with different outcomes, imprinted with our own personal interpretation of all that we have taken in. We call that style.

Our style, is our signature, another reflection of who we are, when we start to become satisfied or happy with what we are doing. Be it the way we play an instrument, shift gears in a big truck, (which has a tempo and a beat count, matches The Addams Family theme song), or the flatness and swirl in a fillet weld, our best results come when we have faith in ourselves, confidence in our abilities, and a relaxing peace of mind. The difference between drone and artist.

The old joke, How do you get to Carnegie Hall? PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. I love practice, the achievements, the mistakes, the beauty, and the ugliness. I am not focused on the end of the trip, I am focused on the journey.

Enjoy the trip you are own, and do it with style.

Mark Shane 

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Gordon Shumway
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December 11, 2018 - 4:35 am
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I too have seen the prescription "play from below the note up to the note", but in reality you are always going to be using your ears.

For comparison, at university in 1980 I was lucky enough to play second oboe in a pro-am production of Prokofiev's Duenna under Howard Williams of the ENO. The first oboist was a mature philosophy undergraduate who already had a performer's diploma from the Royal College of Music, and he became my oboe teacher. I spent a whole 6 months practising diaphragm vibrato every single day! I am going to assume, initially, that it will take me 6 months next year to learn perfect violin vibrato (of course, I've started already, lol!).

Andrew

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wtw
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I saw first the prescription "play from below to above the note", which did make sense to me (then saw it contradicted basically everywhere else).

But @Gordon Shumway I agree that it doesn't matter much in the end, as it's mostly the ear and not the eyes that will control the playing. Even when practicing, it's too fast to see what's happening, let alone think about the details. As long as the intonation sounds correct, it's fine...

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Shane "Chicken" Wang

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Andrew Shumway said
I too have seen the prescription "play from below the note up to the note", but in reality you are always going to be using your ears.

For comparison, at university in 1980 I was lucky enough to play second oboe in a pro-am production of Prokofiev's Duenna under Howard Williams of the ENO. The first oboist was a mature philosophy undergraduate who already had a performer's diploma from the Royal College of Music, and he became my oboe teacher. I spent a whole 6 months practising diaphragm vibrato every single day! I am going to assume, initially, that it will take me 6 months next year to learn perfect violin vibrato (of course, I've started already, lol!).  

Hmmmm. You know on saxophone you learn vibrato through embouchure, took 20 minutes. lol. I know what you mean though, I can play the brass section.

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Fiddlerman
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December 11, 2018 - 6:15 pm
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The theory is that the human ear registers the highest tone.

"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."

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Gordon Shumway
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Shane "Chicken" Wang said

...on saxophone you learn vibrato through embouchure, took 20 minutes. lol....

Coincidentally I was listening to some really good sleazy 50s tenor sax rock n roll the other day and thinking, yeah, that's jaw vibrato, but it's exactly right for the music, and diaphragm vibrato would be very wrong.

Andrew

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Gordon Shumway
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And a spammer brings me back to this thread! (Last time I reported some spam, the entire thread disappeared for some reason.)

Anyway, the main problem I notice on the violin is that, unlike diaphragm vibrato, my violin vibrato is usually too fast. So my idea is to listen to opera singers and try to vibrato more like them.

Also, I'm not sure if it is a good thing for beginners to try to distinguish finger, wrist, arm vibrato, as I wonder if it will cause accidental tension. Also there may be a translation problem - in Russian there's no specific word for hand, there's the word RUKA which means the same as (and is related to) the ancient Greek CHEIR, which means hand and forearm. Teachings which originated in the Russian language, then, may get distorted in translation.

I'm surmising that if you regard the whole arm as an elastic system and keep it loose to begin with, then one day you can slightly firm-up the finger, wrist or elbow, redistributing the elasticity to make it a more specific action.

Andrew

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Mouse
November 21, 2019 - 6:56 am
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@Gordon Shumway Spammer deleted, just for you. 😁 👍

The Bumblebee Flies!

Please ignore any typos. My typing ability on a real typewriter did not transfer to these device key pads.

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Fiddlerman
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November 21, 2019 - 3:07 pm
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Gordon Shumway said
Anyway, the main problem I notice on the violin is that, unlike diaphragm vibrato, my violin vibrato is usually too fast. So my idea is to listen to opera singers and try to vibrato more like them.

That is a great idea. I like it. It's rare that people feel the that their vibrato is too fast, Arm vibrato is better for slower wider vibrato.

Also, I'm not sure if it is a good thing for beginners to try to distinguish finger, wrist, arm vibrato, as I wonder if it will cause accidental tension. Also there may be a translation problem - in Russian there's no specific word for hand, there's the word RUKA which means the same as (and is related to) the ancient Greek CHEIR, which means hand and forearm. Teachings which originated in the Russian language, then, may get distorted in translation.

Can't see how it would be bad for beginners but then again, I can't remember when I was a beginner.

"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."

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Mouse
November 21, 2019 - 6:30 pm
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@Fiddlerman Were you born with a violin and bow!? Wow, your poor mom when she delivered you! And they thought it was you crying after being born. Little did they know it was the E string. yaaaa_gif

The Bumblebee Flies!

Please ignore any typos. My typing ability on a real typewriter did not transfer to these device key pads.

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Gordon Shumway
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Fiddlerman said

Gordon Shumway said

Also, I'm not sure if it is a good thing for beginners to try to distinguish finger, wrist, arm vibrato, as I wonder if it will cause accidental tension. 

Can't see how it would be bad for beginners but then again, I can't remember when I was a beginner.  

Maybe I just haven't watched enough videos, but I fear that "arm vibrato" can be interpreted as having a very rigid wrist and vibrating from the elbow. Also, my mother had to have both carpal tunnels operated on, so I fear that a wrist vibrato where the wrist is the only thing that moves might be harmful if used in excess. So I try to distribute the tensions and movements over the whole arm from fingertip to elbow so that nothing has too much work to do and nothing is unduly tense. After that it's about slight redistributions of the effort.

Andrew

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AndrewH
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Gordon Shumway said

Fiddlerman said

Gordon Shumway said

Also, I'm not sure if it is a good thing for beginners to try to distinguish finger, wrist, arm vibrato, as I wonder if it will cause accidental tension. 

Can't see how it would be bad for beginners but then again, I can't remember when I was a beginner.  

Maybe I just haven't watched enough videos, but I fear that "arm vibrato" can be interpreted as having a very rigid wrist and vibrating from the elbow. Also, my mother had to have both carpal tunnels operated on, so I fear that a wrist vibrato where the wrist is the only thing that moves might be harmful if used in excess. So I try to distribute the tensions and movements over the whole arm from fingertip to elbow so that nothing has too much work to do and nothing is unduly tense. After that it's about slight redistributions of the effort.

  

The main reason they're taught separately is that people self-teaching vibrato often develop the kind of motion where the wrist and arm cancel each other out; the wrist moves back and forth but the finger stays almost stationary.

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Fiddlerman
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November 22, 2019 - 9:22 am
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Gordon Shumway said

Fiddlerman said

Gordon Shumway said Also, I'm not sure if it is a good thing for beginners to try to distinguish finger, wrist, arm vibrato, as I wonder if it will cause accidental tension. 

Can't see how it would be bad for beginners but then again, I can't remember when I was a beginner.  

Maybe I just haven't watched enough videos, but I fear that "arm vibrato" can be interpreted as having a very rigid wrist and vibrating from the elbow. Also, my mother had to have both carpal tunnels operated on, so I fear that a wrist vibrato where the wrist is the only thing that moves might be harmful if used in excess. So I try to distribute the tensions and movements over the whole arm from fingertip to elbow so that nothing has too much work to do and nothing is unduly tense. After that it's about slight redistributions of the effort.

So, when I say arm vibrato, I am referring to arm vibrato without moving the wrist.
However, once a person learns individual vibrato types, they can and should mix to what is appropriate for the style you are playing.

"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."

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