Sing Vibrato

When vibrato is flowing effortlessly in your voice it means that something good is happening. Strong technique is in place with proper breathing and sound placement, body alignment, and a release of tension. In short, vibrato is a sign of good vocal technique. However, there are plenty of ways to do it incorrectly. You don't want to mimic vibrato – you want to have the real thing.

Steps

Producing Vibrato Naturally

  1. Open the back of your throat. You can do this simply by yawning.[1] Try to keep that feeling of yawning in your mouth and throat while you sing. Can you mimic that feeling without even yawning, too?
    • Singing well (and singing with vibrato) is largely about being relaxed and open. If your throat is closed, the noise won't flow and your tone won't be warm and rich. You may be able to belt a few notes, but your full range will be cut off.
  2. Relax your muscles completely. If you are not relaxed, you will not be able to sing with vibrato. It should come naturally if you relax and don't strain your voice. Shake out any tension from your wrists to your ankles. Do circles with your neck, stretching out the sides. Get loose on the outside so you can avoid tension on the inside.
    • This includes all the muscles in your face and head, too, like your jaw and tongue. They should be doing very little work, regardless of whether you're singing with a straight tone or with vibrato.
  3. To help you breathe correctly, stand correctly. In order to master breath flow (which is alarmingly important), keep good posture by standing with one foot slightly in front of the other, and your neck, head, and back all in a straight line. Subglottic pressure is actually regulated by your abs, lower back, chest, and butt muscles.[2]
    • If you're sitting, sit on the edge of your chair with your back straight and your head facing directly forward – you shouldn't be looking down, even if you're reading music.
  4. Sing with your diaphragm. Take a good, solid, deep breath into your core. Your shoulders should not go up and your diaphragm should lower. When you sing the note, concentrate on it naturally cycling in front of you. Let it go on its own – it should do it for you.
    • Proper singing isn't work. If you're feeling like you're forcing out a specific sound, you're not doing it right. Vibrato is natural; don't bother forcing it if it's not there. It just means you need to concentrate on other aspects of singing first. Vibrato is the icing on the cake, not the flour in the batter. It comes last.
  5. Keep your breath flow steady and even. Not breathing or breathing inconsistently is surprisingly easy to do while singing. To produce the sound you're aiming for, keep the amount of air you produce steady and even. If it's not steady, your vibrato will wobble all over the place.
    • In addition to being steady, your breath needs to be even to keep vibrato consistent. If it's not even, you may notice your vibrato slowing down or speeding up – both of which should be avoided.
  6. Keep it subtle. You've probably heard a few singers whose vibrato is so strong it takes over the song. It just won't stop, and it's a little distracting. Don't be this singer. Vibrato sounds much better when it's light and natural. It should be like surprise ice cream, not ice cream splattered all over you and splattered everywhere.
    • What's more, know when it's appropriate – which isn't all the time. If you sang a song entirely in a straight tone, that song wouldn't be aurally interesting. If you sang it entirely with vibrato, that song wouldn't be aurally interesting either. So use it sometimes, don't use it others, and switch it up. Use it when you feel like it fits.
  7. Master other things first if need be. If vibrato doesn't come naturally to you, well, for starters, don't give yourself a hard time. Many pros fake it or do it incorrectly (more on this in a bit). Vibrato is trendy more than anything. That being said, continue to work on your singing and it'll come. When you have solid technique, vibrato will be a piece of cake.
    • Focus on your resonance and timbre, instead. You'll develop the right habits of singing freely, breathing properly, and being relaxed. You'll start placing the sounds correctly in your mouth, letting go of your jaw and tongue, and the vibrato will start spilling out.

Understanding True Vibrato

  1. Know that your vibrato will develop naturally in time if you sing correctly. Some vocal teachers will help you concentrate on developing your "vibrato" by teaching you a few exercises that force it out. This isn't true vibrato – this is you imitating vibrato. If you're singing correctly, vibrato will develop – it's a natural physical result of singing correctly.
    • This is very much so an aspect of singing that comes with time. There's no magical way to develop it overnight. It takes a rich, healthy tone and proper breath support for it to even start – and you can't run before you walk.
  2. Understand what vibrato is. Technically speaking, vibrato is an even, steady tonal oscillation of a pitch's center. It's a slight variation in pitch and is the natural function of a well-produced tone.[2] It cannot be naturally manipulated.
    • Most people believe that vibrato adds a warmth and depth to the voice. It's perceived by the ears as a pitch variant, but in actually it's part of the tone, centering it.
  3. Know why it's helpful. Sure, vibrato sounds good, but it's also helpful for the voice. Not only does it center the pitch, but it also helps the muscles relax. It's your larynx pulsing in order to properly deal with the pressure that's being put upon it.[2] It's there to protect your vocal folds from over-exertion.
    • Think about lifting weights. When your muscles are under duress, they automatically start shaking. Have you ever thought about why? It's a similar mechanism throughout your entire body.
  4. Know that vibrato is not the same as "trillo," "wobble," or "tremolo." So many people "fake their vibrato," which is to say that they don't actually have a true vibrato at all. Let's discuss "trillo, "wobble", and "tremolo":[3]
    • Trillo. This sounds like a goat bleating, point blank. It sort of sounds like a very fast, staccato vibrato. It is caused by breath that has not properly placed and becomes dispersed.
    • Wobble. This is when the cycles occur slowly and far apart. There's usually a larger variation in pitch, too. It generally happens from a lack of focus in tone or poor breath management.
    • Tremolo. Juxtaposing the wobble (which is too slow), the tremolo is too fast. It comes about from too much glottal pressure, resulting in tension around the base of the tongue.

Exercises to Produce a Vibrato-Like Sound

  1. Try a diaphragm exercise. Place your hands at the bottom of your chest and feel where your ribs come together in the middle. Now move your hands slightly below this point (it's the soft area a few centimeters above your belly button). Now sing a note on one pitch in your easy range – any note will do. As you're singing this note, push in gently with your hands. The key is to push in, then pull out, and push in, then pull out and so on. Try doing this at a rate of around 3 to 4 cycles a second.
    • For the record, this type of exercise generally produces a tremolo sound. The volume changes while pitch remains the same, which is not true vibrato. However, it can give you a good idea of what muscles are involved and start retraining your muscles.
  2. Consider placing a finger on your larynx. Some teachers instruct their students to hold a finger on their larynx and wiggle it up and down while singing on a sustained pitch. This will result in a strange sound similar to a vibrato, but again, not true vibrato. That being said, it can help get new muscles working in new ways.
    • Take these exercises with a grain of salt. As stated many times previously in this article, true, natural vibrato comes on its own. These are simply to get you and your voice thinking in different ways.
  3. Switch between two notes, one note and another a semitone away. Another method teachers employ is to have their students switch between two notes at quicker and quicker rates until it's reminiscent of vibrato. The aim is for 6-8 cycles per second.
    • As you can likely tell, this isn't vibrato either. It's a mimicking technique that gets close to the sound. Just make sure the two notes you're switching between are a semitone or less away from each other.
  4. Don't give yourself "Gospel Jaw." You know those singers whose jaws move up and down with every hint of a vibrato cycle? This isn't how you're supposed to do it, whether you're Whitney Houston or not. Your jaw should be completely relaxed during singing, along with every other part of your body. So, yes, moving your jaw up and down can mimic that sound, but it's not natural or healthy.
    • This is often called "Gospel Jaw" because it's seen so prominently with Gospel singers. It's also called "jaw vibrato" as it's not emanating from your vocal folds – it's just vibrato produced with your jaw.[3]



Tips

  • Don't go overboard. If you sing incorrectly, not only will you not produce a vibrato, but you will strain your voice.
  • A vibrato comes when you relax your throat and push with your diaphragm. It is the result of the relaxation of the exterior muscles of the larynx which can no longer remain motionless in the position during the emission of the sound.
  • Vibrato happens when your voice shifts quickly between two pitches. The range of a vibrato can vary greatly. Some have a narrow vibrato, while others have a very wide vibrato.

Warnings

  • Be sensitive to the music you want to perform. Pop, music theatre, modern classical music, and many other styles use vibrato selectively. Do not try to use vibrato on everything indiscriminately. Instead, find a good voice instructor who can help coach you on where to effectively use vibrato.

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ http://www.become-a-singing-master.com/singing-vibrato.html
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 http://www.singwise.com/cgi-bin/main.pl?section=articles&doc=Vibrato
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 http://www.singwise.com/cgi-bin/main.pl?section=articles&doc=Vibrato&page=2
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