Getting rid of it!

[wyodeb]

Unconscious vibrato. Learned as a flute player and singer. How do I make it go away and stay away?

Deb

[benhall.1]

Just don't.

But seriously, long notes ... then slow practice of tunes ...

[crookedtune]

A can of 'V-B-Gone' wouldn't do much harm in our local session, either. Touchy subject, though.

[MTGuru]

Electroshock?

Seriously ... As Ben said, just don't. Stay conscious. Play long, steady tones. As an exercise, when you're practicing a melody, pause on random notes and hold them out with no vibrato. You'll get used to it quickly.

A good friend of mine (you know who you are), when first starting out, came to our session and played us a tune with deep, wide breath vibrato. Mayhem ensued, with everyone gently browbeating him to a pulp for his faux pas. That cured him right quick. So if all else fails, try public humiliation.

Work out the effective fingerings for finger vibrato (flattement) on your instruments - skip a hole, or half-hole the next hole, one or more fingers, etc. Then when you feel a vibrato coming on, reach for finger vibrato instead. Having a substitute available helps a lot. But don't over-use it. At dance tune speeds, there's not much room for vibrato anyway.

I've come to feel there's some room for very occasional use of breath vibrato in trad playing. There's not much choice on D. And it's good to have alternatives, if your instrument is capable of an expressive technique, and if you have the taste and experience to apply it. But constant, pervasive Romantic-era breath vibrato is a stylistic intrusion in trad. Singing is the mother lode of all wind playing. Listen to sean nós singing, and take your playing cues from that.

[Feadoggie]

Electroshock?

I was going to suggest the methods of my first piano teacher, one Sister Mary Yardstick of the venerable Sisters of Perpetual Agony but... I still have a fear of measuring sticks. Just say no! That would be less stressful.

There's not much choice on D.

For the second octave D you can vent the top hole and use finger vibrato on the top hole. I've observed that method used by several good players but the vibrato effect there may be as much due to wiggling the whistle in the mouth as anything else. Works better on some whistles than others. Anyone else use that?

Feadoggie

[MTGuru]

For the second octave D you can vent the top hole and use finger vibrato on the top hole. I've observed that method used by several good players but the vibrato effect there may be as much due to wiggling the whistle in the mouth as anything else. Works better on some whistles than others. Anyone else use that?

Yeah, it depends on the whistle. I'm a non-venter by preference, and I tend to like whistles where venting the D has little or no effect on pitch or timbre. So finger vibrato is just a finger exercise. Or a dramatic visual effect, like Pete Townsend's windmill chords.

[highwood]

you can always wiggle the finger and use breath vibrato "ducks"
(my whistle responds with nought when venting/closing the top hole playing an octave D)

[oleorezinator]

Sometime early in the last century,
an old school French flute player made this comment on vibrato.
" People have been trying to play the flute in tune for 400 years,
now they don't need to."

[peeplj]

Just to point it out--continual, uncontrolled vibrato is as out of place in art music (i.e. "classical") as it is in Irish dance music.

I've heard flutists who would still be using vibrato, even if they are in the middle of extended passages of 16th-notes.

There are times it can be a useful technique, but not if you can't control it.

Just my $.02.

--James

[wyodeb]

I don't do it all the time. It tends to appear during extended notes. It is difficult to eradicate when playing slowly.

Deb

[DrPhill]

<Caveat> I am not as experienced as the other commentators, but....</Caveat> I definitely had, and probably to some extent still have, the same problem.

The advice above helps. Practising long steady notes (it was Ben's same advice I took a while back) and practising finger vibrato were both useful. I notice(d) that I am more prone to breath vibrato when I am running out of air. I am not sure why this is or whether I am typical in this. Planning and practising breathing places may have help a bit.

A variation on Ben's suggested exercise that may help is playing the long stead notes into a tuner. I have had to do that quite a bit while tuning home made whistles, and it feels as if it may be do some good too.....

HTH

[wyodeb]

I notice(d) that I am more prone to breath vibrato when I am running out of air. I am not sure why this is or whether I am typical in this.

I've noticed this as well. Often towards the end of a long phrase. I'm trying to be more aware of it in flute playing and singing too. It will ultimately be more useful if I can use it mindfully, when and where I want it.

Thanks for the suggestions. The tuner one sounds really helpful.

Deb

[fearfaoin]

I was going to suggest the methods of my first piano teacher, one Sister Mary Yardstick of the venerable Sisters of Perpetual Agony but... I still have a fear of measuring sticks.

I'm still trying to figure out how you were
playing piano with too much vibrato...

Someone linked to this iPhone app on our
Trad Tech forum:
http://www3.siba.fi/pitchprimer/en/
From the video it looks like it would make
vibrato pretty obvious in realtime. I'm sure
there are many programs for the PC that
are similar.

[Feadoggie]

I'm still trying to figure out how you were playing piano with too much vibrato...

I should have been more graphic. I was just referring to the methods used to break (and I mean break) bad playing habits (no pun intended). I can't be the only one here that had their knuckles whacked with a ruler when they played a wrong note. I guess that era was too far back in pre-history for most.

Feadoggie

[Denny]

ah, it's a gentler kinder world now, innit!