If you don’t have vibrato in your voice, I’m going to show you 5 different ways to help you get vibrato.
For various reasons, many of us just don’t have vibrato.
Here are 5 ways to get vibrato. The idea is to introduce to your nervous system the feeling of vibrato. It won’t be a natural vibrato yet. It’ll feel fake and artificial at first. But it will be the beginning of a natural vibrato.
Like learning to ride a bicycle, someone helps you balance as you ride. When you feel your balance they let go and you ride on your own. You repeat that, riding further each time.
Then it happens. You feel the natural balance take over and you don’t fall. You ride and keep your balance because your muscles feel the balance and do it themselves.
With vibrato, eventually the neurons in and around your vocal cords will feel the fluctuations you’re making and will take over and do it themselves without any help from you.
These exercises may feel as awkward as first learning to ride your bike. Soon you won’t have to make vibrato happen. Your vocal cords will just do it on their own.
How to Get Vibrato #1
Clasp your hands and shake them in front of you as you hold out a note. You will feel vibrato in your voice. Do it several times as you hold out the note. Do it long enough to feel it. Then do it again, but stop shaking your hands while you continue making the feeling of vibrato in your voice. [Demo]
How to Get Vibrato #2
Make a sound with your voice like you hear when your car battery’s going dead. Hum the pulse in your voice like this. [Demo] It should sound like your car isn’t starting.
Start very slow and gradually get faster and faster. [Demo] Instead of humming, make the same feeling and sound but with a “Uh”. [Demo] Don’t go so fast that you lose the pulsing feeling. Slow it down if you need to get that pulse going again…then gradually speed up. Keep practicing this until you can go fast.
If your vocal cords jump in and take over, let them! Do it again and let them take over again. Be sure to hold the note long enough for the vocal cords to find their balance and rhythm. [Demo]
How to Get Vibrato #3
Pick two notes that are comfortably in your range. Not to high or too low. For men try D3 to E3. For women try B Flat-3 to Middle C.
On the vowel “e” sing B flat to C back and forth, slowly at first. Do it slow to get the note right. Gradually get faster. But only as fast as you can do it without losing the steady alternating feeling.
Slow it down if you need to find the alternating rhythm again. Gradually speed up until the vocal cords take over the alternating themselves. They will want to do it faster so let them. If you lose it, start the process again. [Demo]
How to Get Vibrato #4
On a descending 5 tone scale say the word “She”. For men start on the A3 and go down the scale to D3. Women start at E above middle C and go down to the A3.
Say “She” on each note. On the bottom note repeat the word “She” quickly 5 times and hold it. Pulse “she” on the “E” vowel. This has the same pulsing feeling as the previous exercises. [Demo]
How to Get Vibrato #5
This exercise may be best used after you start feeling vibrato. On an Octave Repeat scale say the word “she”. Men start on B Flat 2. Women start on G3 or A3. Say “she” on each note and repeat the word “She” 4 times and hold it as you pulse the “E” vowel. [Demo]
Here’s a tip that helped me at first. Use your fingers as if you were controlling the vibrato with them. Practice controlling waves or pulses in your tone with your fingers. Slow the waves down and then speed them up.
The ideal vibrato is not extremely fast nor slow. Too fast and it’s a tremolo. Too slow and it’s a wobble. Keep practicing until you can sustain a note with vibrato without faltering or stopping. Watch Episode 59 to hear a tremolo and wobble.
Eventually, your vibrato will be natural and balanced. The last exercise above will help you improve your newborn vibrato.
One way to continue to refine your vibrato is to do specific Vocal Type Exercises that balance your voice.
Do you know your vocal type? I’m not talking about whether you are soprano, alto, tenor or bass. Your vocal type is what you tend to do when your sing.
Visit PowerToSing.com and take the vocal test, which I call the PowerTest. Take the quiz and discover your vocal type. Then visit the Knowledge Center and watch the videos about your vocal type and download the free vocal exercises.
These exercises are designed to balance your voice and make getting and improving vibrato easier.
I’m Chuck Gilmore with Power To Sing. You can sing higher with beauty, confidence and power.
I’ll see you inside the next video.
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