How to Turn Off Vibrato! One of my online students asked this question. He’s the lead singer in his band. His bandmates like his voice, but they said that sometimes his vibrato was distracting. It surprised him because he wasn’t even aware he was doing vibrato.
Inside this video, I’ll show you how to turn off vibrato (and turn it on again)!
When I listened to the recording my student sent me, I could hear what his bandmates were talking about. It was like the vibrato was happening randomly. It was like the vibrato was sneaking in whenever it wanted to. In a couple spots, the vibrato seemed slightly too fast.
If your vibrato is too fast, or it starts without you wanting it, it makes you feel out of control. Like vibrato has it’s own will and you can’t control it.
How to Turn Off Vibrato
Here’s an exercise to turn off vibrato. It will also help you get control to use it when you want.
Step One: Pick a lower note in chest voice, On a descending Five Tone Scale, say “mum” and sustain the bottom note. As you sustain it, clamp down on the vocal cords with the “m” sound to stop or prevent vibrato from starting. Hold the straight tone and change to “uh’. [demo]
Repeat this several times, each time preventing the vibrato. See if you can do it easier while maintaining the straight tone.
Step Two: Repeat the above. This time, after you hold a straight tone, you will start the vibrato slowly like this. (Don’t clamp down as hard.) Alternate between two pitches. Use your fingers like this to signal your vocal cords to move up and then down one whole step. [Demo]
Do this several times slowly. Maintain control. Don’t let the vibrato take off. You exert control over each note. Practice this until you are able to stay in control.
Step Three: After you hold the straight tone , begin slowing alternating pitches faster and faster. Go as fast as you can while maintaining exact control. Use your fingers to direct you. [Demo]
Step Four: Practice going from straight tone, to alternating faster and faster. Each time speed it up. Eventually your cords will start to take over the undulations. However, this time you only allow this if the undulations stay consistent. If they start going too fast, stop them and start over. [Demo]
Step Five: Do the above exercise and practice starting and stopping vibrato. Use your fingers to control your vocal cords. Make your cords stay with your fingers. Don’t let the cords move faster than your fingers. [Demo]
Practicing this exercise will teach you how to turn off vibrato and turn it on again.
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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.
Responses
Hi CharleneRenee: This training will help you. It can help you immediately. Do it enough that you can begin to control your vibrato, ie, turn it on or turn in off whenever you want.
Hey Mr. Gilmore! I thought I was a great singer until someone recently told me about my vibrato. I thought I had control until I couldn’t turn the darn thing off! Lol. I’ve been singing for 30+ years, will this training work for me? How often should I do this and when should I see a difference? Please assist at your convenience.????
Hi Mary, this will help!
Thanks Chuck . I’m going to try these exercises . I sing barbershop in Sweet Adelines , they hate vibrato !
Thanks!
Awesome! Thank you, Chuck. This exercise will be very helpful. I’m hoping to become more aware of when vibrato sneaks in on me so I can decide where or not it will be useful for that particular song or not. This exercise will help me turn the unwanted vibrato off when it sneaks in. Thank you.