Vibrato

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Table of
Contents
What does good vibrato sound
like? 1

What is vibrato? 3

How We Create Vibrato 4

Control 6

Speed up the Vibrato 7

Role of Support 8

Harmonics 9

Implementing Vibrato 10

Creating Texture with Vibrato 11

Plan Your Vibrato 13

Listenning to Vibrato 15

Listening Worksheet 16

© Chelsea Tanner
Introduction
I hope you will gain perspective and insight throughout this
packet. I'm sharing my approach to vibrato. This is all about what I
have found to work.

I also want you to keep in mind that your body and your
subconscious are the ones that will be internalizing these concepts
physically. When practicing tone quality make sure that you have
awareness.

Let your body experiment with these concepts and observe what
happens. Take what you learn here, try new things, and adjust
accordingly.

I hope you'll ask questions, question everything! Does this make

sense? Why? Why not?

Curiosity is the key to EVERYTHING. This packet should not

function as the "end all be all" to your journey to a controlled
vibrato. It will simply be a tool in your tool box.

© Chelsea Tanner
What does good
vibrato sound
like?
We all know it when we hear it, but what does good vibrato sound like to you
specifically? Take 3-5 minutes to write down characteristics of appealing vibrato.
What does it do to the sound? What does it help the flutist accomplish?

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© Chelsea Tanner
 SOME DESCRIPTORS THAT
COME TO MIND ARE:

Clear
Even
Consistent
Supported
It helps propel the phrase forward.
It gives momentum to sustained notes when the vibrato is
intensified.
It gives direction to the sound.
It can add texture to a sound that would otherwise be bland.
It gives the sound a singing quality.
It doesn't overpower the tone quality.

All of these words are important to remember when listening to and

analyzing your own vibrato, or any vibrato.

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© Chelsea Tanner
What is
Vibrato?
It can be hard to explain what vibrato is and where it comes from. It all happens
inside the body. Some people believe that it is an innate expression that just comes
out with time and experience. I personally haven’t experienced this to be the case. I
believe it is a skill that can be controlled, practiced, and improved.

pitch

time
Vibrato is the oscillation of pitch and volume, raising and lowering on any
given note. This oscillation is produced by the larynx, the part of your
windpipe where the vocal cords are. Some people claim that vibrato comes
from a lower place such as the stomach or diaphragm. In my experience,
trying to produce vibrato from there constricts the speed of the vibrato,
especially as a student wants to play with a faster, more intense vibrato.
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© Chelsea Tanner
How We
Create Vibrato
Let’s speak it first. As always there are many options teachers have come up with
over the years to use as syllables, and I encourage you to try them all. Let’s begin by
saying:

Hah Hah Hah

Hoo Hoo Hoo
Dah Hah Hah
Doo Hoo Hoo
Dee Hee Hee

Hah-Hah-Hah
Hoo-Hoo-Hoo
Dah-Hah-Hah
Doo-Hoo-Hoo
Dee-Hee-Hee

1. Speaking the vibrato is a wonderful place to start. You can also

whistle, if you are able, and implement these syllables. This is a
great way to hear the vibrato. I recommend always using a
metronome when starting this exercise, and throughout the
entire practice of vibrato. The metronome will contribute to
your awareness of how even your vibrato pulsations are.
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© Chelsea Tanner
 2. After speaking the vibrato, whisper the syllables without
engaging the vocal cords. Listen to the way your air is moving
throughout your body, still using the metronome.

3. Put the flute up without touching your lip, but just in front of
your embouchure. Blow across the embouchure hole to make
a wispy sound, but not a true flute tone. Use each syllable
again with the metronome.

4. Playing a note at mezzo piano, try these syllables again with

the metronome

This process brings awareness to how vibrato feels in the body, as well as whether or
not these pulsations are even.Set yourself up for success before putting the flute up
and making a sound.

You can start on any note, but I like to use a G in the staff. It is a
fundamental pitch and is a great starting point for a vibrato exercise.
Picking notes in extreme registers will be much more difficult, as there are
other factors in executing those notes that may get in the way of isolating
vibrato.

Vibrato, just like any other skill, is one that needs to be practiced in order to
control it. If you are new to vibrato or have never tried to control yours
before, be patient with yourself. Be kind, you’re doing this for the first time.
It is easy to want results right away, but persistence, awareness, and
compassion will get you there most efficiently.

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© Chelsea Tanner
Control
The following exercises are meant to help you control your vibrato. This means, have
full control over the speed and the width. What does that mean though?

The speed of the vibrato is the frequency with which the pitch and volume
change. If it oscillates quickly, you have a fast vibrato. If it is slower, you
have a slow vibrato.
Practice this on every scale and in
every octave. Start very slow to
experiment with the width of the
vibrato (86 bpm or slower to
120bpm at the fastest).

The width of the vibrato is referring to just how much you are changing the
pitch with each pulsation. The wider (more fluctuation in pitch) the
vibrato, the more intense it will sound. We want to avoid extremes. A very
wide, very fast vibrato runs the risk of sounding outside of the tone. We
want the quality of our tone to be the primary focus. If our vibrato is
distracting from our sound, that is what I mean by the vibrato sounding
“outside the tone.” Sometimes vibrato can sound overpowering. I will
discuss how and when to use appropriate widths and speeds of vibrato in
“Implementing Vibrato.”
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© Chelsea Tanner
 SPEEDING UP THE VIBRATO
Using a metronome is always crucial when you want to make incremental improvements in speed
without losing quality. I would also suggest using rhythm in order to make this transition
effective.

Using the same 4-step process from above, speak, whisper, blow, and play
the following exercise:
The rhythm in this case represents
the pulsations of the vibrato.
Always practice this with a
metronome. Start very slow!

(Doo-Hoo-Hoo-Hoo)

(DooHooHooHooHooHooHooHoo)
etc.

Get comfortable with this exercise on every note in each register. Vibrato
feels different in every register, this is a great way to gain awareness of
your tendency to slow or speed up the vibrato in specific octaves.

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© Chelsea Tanner
Role of
Support
I have seen this happen so many times: People start to use vibrato, and they stop
supporting their airstream. How can you tell if this is happening to you?

Play this lyrical melody with no vibrato (EXERCISE BELOW). Phrase it to be

what you would like and as best as you can with no vibrato. Did a little
vibrato creep in? Do you use the same amount of air and support when
you’re using vibrato/not using it?

Reinecke: Ballade for Flute and Orchestra (about 138bpm = 8th note)

If vibrato crept in during your phrase, it is likely because your intention in

phrasing is being supported by your vibrato and not your air. This is
something to be aware of. If we fully support and then put vibrato in our
sound, it will be much more convincing to our audience.

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© Chelsea Tanner
HARMONICS
One way we can practice support alongside our vibrato is to practice
vibrato with harmonics. Harmonics are played when we finger a
fundamental pitch, and produce a higher pitch in the harmonic series
above that note. You may have heard of this being described as
“overblowing” a first-octave pitch. We absolutely need support to play these
higher pitches, and doing this in tandem with your vibrato practice will
help you feel the support you need while also using vibrato.

Play this exercise with your top octave scales, but use the fundamental (first octave) fingerings
for each note. This will create a greater sense of support throughout your vibrato when
transitioning back to the regular fingerings.

The held whole note is marked with no vibrato. This will allow you to hear any wavering in the air
stream that is unintentional, and where you may be using vibrato to support the air instead.

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© Chelsea Tanner
 Implementing
Vibrato
Implementing vibrato can be a confusing task. Where to begin? As you are
transitioning from simple exercises like the one above to implementing vibrato into
pieces, you will need to keep the pulsations even and count them. Of course, you
wouldn’t normally perform this way, but this is the first step to implementing an even
vibrato.

Faure: Sicilienne
4 4 2 3 2 4
option 1: 2 2 2 3 2 3 2

6 3 6
option 2: 3 3 5 3 6 3 4 3 5 3
8 2 4 2 4 2 3 2 4 2 3 2 3 2 8

15 3
6 3 6 3 5 3 6 3 4 3 5 3 15

option 1: (think 16ths) option 2: (think triplet 16ths)

When you feel comfortable with your vibrato at the appropriate speeds, it is
time to take away the counting of pulsations. This will leave you free to
change the speed of the vibrato and will sound a bit more natural to the
listener. However, if you skip the step of measuring your vibrato and
implementing evenness, it will sound messy and inconsistent.
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© Chelsea Tanner
CREATING TEXTURE
WITH VIBRATO
When we can change the width and speed of the vibrato freely, we can
shape a phrase most effectively. For example, if you have a phrase that is
marked dolce (or sweetly), you can experiment with your vibrato to see if a
fast, wide, slow, or narrow vibrato would be most effective. Let’s take the
example of Debussy’s Afternoon of a Faun excerpt (mm. 1-4).

Playing this with a wide and fast vibrato seems a bit too intense for the
character. Let’s try slow and wide. Still no? Then let's try fast and narrow.
Yep, that’s it! With this transparency of the C#, a fast and narrow vibrato
pairs beautifully. With dolce markings, I tend to use a fast and narrow
vibrato. Wide vibrato is aggressive and is usually used in more operatic
high-note situations. Slow vibrato, especially in lyrical pieces, tends to feel
bogged down, and the phrase loses momentum.

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© Chelsea Tanner
It is important to remember that vibrato creates emphasis when it is
implemented. Therefore, a good rule of thumb is to start each note with
vibrato. Late vibrato can lead to emphasis in the middle of the note.
Although there are always exceptions to these guidelines, it is something to
always consider. If your vibrato is late, and it goes unnoticed by you, your
audience will not be able to understand where your phrase is leading to or
coming away from as easily. A great way to gain awareness is to record
yourself, listen to the beginning of the notes, and see where your vibrato
may be late.

If you want to practice starting vibrato right away, implementing a “D” articulation
such as DooHooHoo or DahHahHah is effective, so that your articulation will function
as the first vibrato pulsation.

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© Chelsea Tanner
PLAN YOUR VIBRATO
Once you feel comfortable and have practiced measured and unmeasured vibrato, it is
time to start planning your vibrato to serve the tone color and emphasis you’re looking
for. I’ll break down a four-step process that is very valuable to crafting a convincing
phrase and implementing vibrato.

1. Play with no vibrato. You might be thinking, wait that doesn’t

make sense. Aren’t we supposed to be planning our vibrato?
Precisely! We need a phrase structure first. We need to plan the
focal note of our phrase (where we are going to and coming away
from) and plan how to convey that with our air/breath. If we don’t
take the time to map this out and play the phrase convincingly
without vibrato, we run the risk of using our vibrato instead of our
air to create the phrase we want. This is less effective because our
air support is not as engaged.

2. Decide which notes you will play with vibrato. Play only those
notes with the speed, intensity, width, and expression that you
would like on each. Put fermatas on them and think through how
each of these notes will sound in context. For example, if you have
a sustained note leading to your focal note, practice the vibrato on
that note. Will you crescendo and intensify your vibrato? Will you
start the vibrato at the beginning of the note? Will you increase
the width as you progress throughout the note? So many
considerations! Experiment and plan, then practice only the notes
you’ll play with vibrato.

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© Chelsea Tanner
 3. Keep the fermatas on your vibrato notes, but add all of the other
notes in. You want to make sure that the non-vibrato notes are
fully supported. When we choose not to vibrate on every note, we
run the risk of having the non-vibrato notes sound “weak” and
noticeably different from the vibrant vibrato notes. Make sure you
practice transitioning from vibrato to non-vibrato notes smoothly
and with support.

4. Play everything as it is written with your planned vibrato notes.

Pro Tip: Record yourself and listen back. Did you accomplish
what you wanted to with your phrase? Did it sound just like you’d
imagined? Describe what the vibrato adds to the texture. Is this
the texture you’re going for?

If you think this is thorough, it is! I have to say, once I have planned my phrasing and vibrato, I
feel so much more confident when it comes to a performance or an audition. There is no
substitute for this kind of preparedness. (It doesn’t take as long as you think it will!)

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© Chelsea Tanner
Listening to
Vibrato
Listening is one of the most effective ways to learn vibrato, and what an expressive,
controlled vibrato sounds like. If you don’t know what vibrato should sound like, get to
know some recordings!

Below is a list of flutists that I

recommend you listen to. Listen
once only for their vibrato! See
what you find!

Julius Baker
Jeanne Baxtresser
William Bennett
Leone Buyse
Mathieu Dufour
James Galway
Marianne Gedigian
Joseph Mariano
Emmanuel Pahud
Marina Piccinini
Jean-Pierre Rampal
Paula Robison
try to listen for only their vibrato!
Carol Wincenc
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Jim Walker
© Chelsea Tanner
LISTENING WORKSHEET
Pick 3 Flutists and listen!
Who did you listen to?

What are some differences you noticed in their vibrato? Fast, slow, wide, narrow?

Do they change the style of the vibrato often, or does it sound generally consistent?

Just like fashion trends go in and out of style, vibrato trends do too! It can
be interesting to hear older recordings and how the vibrato is used in such
a different way than recordings we hear today.

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© Chelsea Tanner