Check Out Dr. David Wallace’s Vibrato Lessons on My Talent Forge:
Hi there, I’m Dr. David Wallace with myTalentForge.’s com Quick Tip of the Week.
This week’s Quick Tip is about vibrato.
Now, I know there are thousands of videos, and web pages, and tutorials about vibrato. I mean, who doesn’t want a better vibrato?
But have you ever seen one that talks about the very tip joint of the finger?
You see, if you watch most professional musicians, their tip joint is very flexible. It will be giving way in the flat side of the vibrato cycle. That’s how you’re able to get just a really warm […] throbbing vibrato sound.
So here are a couple of exercises that will help you to develop this flexible fingertip, throbbing kind of vibrato.
The first thing you can do, is just take a finger, put it opposite your thumb, and then just roll the finger. This is not an active thing- I’m not really extending or squeezing. I have contact, I’m not pressing, but I’m just rolling the tip back.
And do it in rhythm- 1 and 2 and 3 and 4, and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and… Do each finger. Do maybe about 8 counts or so. Be sure you get all of them.
And the arm and everything else stays the same. Do it in rhythm.
Even the little finger!
You can do different tempos. Get to a more fast reflex thing. But that will help to make sure that your fingers are not squeezing, so that you have this give in that tip joint.
The next step would be to just lightly let your hand rest, but let your hand rock and as your hand rocks back, you let the knuckle passively give. I’m not really working too much to roll.
But basically, I’m coordinating that finger roll with the hand.
You can also do that with the instrument in place. Put the hand right here, and then eventually you get to start adding finger action and suddenly you have this warmer vibrato, and you start to sound more like Itzhak Perlman, or whoever the person is you want to sound like.
Now, this is just an introduction.
If you really want to know vibrato- how to color it, how to develop an arm vibrato, how to do vibrato in different styles of music, you need to get on myTalentForge.com, and check out our Vibrato Secrets Series and Vibrato Fundamentals Series.
So that is your Tip of the Week! Happy Vibrato!
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