I started trying out vibrato a few days ago but it just wasn't coming together.. Turns out I was pulling the arm when I'm supposed to push it! Glad I watched your video, thanks!
@@jamesmcinnis208 This made me laugh so much! 🤣 Honestly, I don't know why I say "viiibrato." I had some pretty hard teachers from all around the world and I know they would have corrected me if it really bothered them. Tomayto, tomato I guess! 🤷♀
@MeadowlarkViolin In many languages, "i" is pronounced as you do in "vibrato." I teach English as a second language, and one of the most difficult sounds for learners is the short "i" as in "fit" - they naturally say "feet." To your teachers, especially the ones who speak European languages, your pronunciation of "vibrato" probably sounds more natural than mine! (Glad you got a chuckle!)
I've watched various videos teaching vibrato technique.. and yours is by far the easiest, and most natural and effective method. You also are very pleasant, and I'm excited now to learn this! Thank you!
This is great. My teachers been going over vibrato with me (and just getting to start feels like such an achievement) and I think your explanation really helped cement what she’s been teaching me. Thank you!!
Thank you so much for this video. It really inspires me because I am an adult beginner (I am 46 and playing for some months already) and I love the fact that you divide every step makes it easier. I will try it tomorrow, thank you again !
Thank you for this and all of your materials that you have posted. I've been a violin teacher for over 30 years and am always looking high quality teaching advice, and you certainly do that! There is so much here for me to try with my students and to add to my "teacher's toolkit." Much appreciated.
So good to check back in on these basics. I'm a beginner-ish older man and I can successfully perform the metronome exercises. Sadly, when I play repertoire, I can't seem to incorporate the vibrato arm movement into the music.
It definitely takes time, practice, and patience to be able to incorporate vibrato into your actual playing. Keep it up and don't beat yourself up too much!
She nailed the problems beginners have. Another one i used to have was having my thumb arching over the fingerboard. Hard to get a nice vibrato with that. I feel like if was probably because I hadn't used my shoulder rest as much as I should have.
Yes, I agree. The thumb arching over the fingerboard is something I see a lot as well. As you pointed out, it probably stems from being uncomfortable with the shoulder rest.
I finally start vibrato now. I am learning for 11 months now. Honestly.. I am a bit scared. But it's ok I will master at some point. So I will keep watching your videos and following some of the advice as I have only weekly lessons..
1) at what playing level before attempting to try vibrato? 2) does your thumb move? 3) does your wrist bends as you flatten the finger? Normal playing, I was always told to keep the wrist straight. So with vibrato the wrist would have to bend and straighten back and forth motion, right? 4) how on earth do you keep the violin from shaking, is your chin doing more controlling on the chin rest?
This is a brilliant approach. I have been teaching for a long time. My success rate teaching decent vibrato is much better now than decades ago, but still, I still occasionally strike out. This is pretty similar to parts of what I do, but this sort of cuts away chunks of the approach I've used. One of the things I've observed is that student- -especially young ones--have to build finger strength and flexibility. Anyway, I will try this with a couple current students that are not able to turn months of tedious work into vibrato. Maybe this will do the trick
Yes, I agree! Finger strength and flexibility are very important when it comes to learning vibrato. I think that's one reason why students who try to learn vibrato a little too early really struggle. It's just the muscle control isn't quite there yet. Sometimes I've had students strike out with this method too. When that happens, I use this trick of sliding the hand up and down the fingerboard then just letting the finger stick while the arm continues the motion. I've actually had several students who struggled with vibrato instantly get it using that trick!😄
With the pinky, you can try doing the exercise with the third finger on the string right behind the pinky. This can help strengthen your pinky. My pinky knuckle isn't as flexible as the other fingers so the vibrato is definitely weaker. Maybe I need to do a pinky vibrato video!
This is exactly how the mechanics of vibrato works. It you are having trouble combining the bowing with the left hand vibrato, then focus your mind on your bow hand and let the vibrato happen from the back of the mind. Your body will naturally hold the rythmic beat and you will be focusing on the bowing which gives you the wonderful tone. I had to take my mind directly off of the left hand to finally make it automatic and back onto my bow hand.
The thumb should be relaxed and not pressed or squeezed against the neck but it doesn't really move. It might wiggle a little bit while you are doing vibrato, but nothing excessive.
@@Jenninrm I would definitely practice vibrato without the bow, just so you can focus on the motion. I think also going through a lot of relaxation exercises for the left hand would help. I have a vibrato course where I teach these techniques if that helps! bit.ly/45iar7S
When I do vibrato, I shake the violin too much and it makes my bow bounce. I saw another video where the violin is rested against a wall or on a counter to stabilize it. I like your technique of teaching vibrato starting with quarter notes and working up... but I am a little impatient. When I play a tune I either sacrifice intonation or vibrato technique or bowing! I gotta put all three together!!!
I know it's easy to get impatient! I would suggest waiting to add vibrato until you feel absolutely confident that you've learned a piece. Once you feel confident with the intonation and bowing, then add vibrato to it, like icing on a cake. Or go back and play really easy songs with vibrato.
Hi! My online studio might be able to help you out. Here's a link to browse all it has to offer. I also offer a free trial so you can see if it would work for you: www.meadowlarkviolinstudio.com Hope that helps!
I can’t seem to coordinate moving the bow and trying to do vibrato at the same time, have not come across anyone telling how to do them together ,frustrated……… thank you
If you're having trouble combining the left and right hands, separate them. Try doing just vibrato with only the left hand (no bow) just to get totally comfortable with the movement. But if you are struggling combining the two, you might also want to go back and make sure you can do basic bowing without even thinking about. Being able to move the bow and get a good tone should be totally natural so you don't have to think about it much while trying to do vibrato. Hope that helps!
Yes, always good to be careful! There's a lot of debate on arm vs. wrist vibrato. It's good to know both, but when it comes to learning vibrato, I usually prefer to teach arm since I think it's easier to be relaxed while learning arm vibrato. I think students tend to get very tense while learning wrist. However, I've heard teachers say the same thing but opposite! So it's very personal. Sometimes arm vibrato just makes sense for a student, and sometimes wrists vibrato makes sense for them. As for getting hurt, I don't think you run a great risk of hurting yourself doing either. As long as you are staying as relaxed as possible and taking breaks you should be fine.
@@MeadowlarkViolin Thank you so much for the explanation. It seemed pretty safe from the video. The wrist vibrato motion seems a bit more intuitive but my hand placement and fingering seems more naturally setup for arm vibrato. It's nice to consider both.
Try playing without the bow to make sure your left hand feels confident. More scales and exercises would probably help too :) I talk about a lot of exercises you can do in my vibrato course to help bit.ly/3u108Un
My biggest problem with learning vibrato is keeping the violin from dropping away. I find I am gripping the neck which leads to a tense and unflexable hand. Can anyone help please.? 😢
Hi Jan, I don't know if you've seen my video on adjusting your shoulder rest, but I'll include the link below. It sounds like your shoulder rest probably isn't doing much for you know with the way it's adjusted. If the shoulder rest is adjusted correctly, you should be able to hold the violin up with just a little weight from your head and no tension from your hands. th-cam.com/video/KliM8ifWRVA/w-d-xo.html
... SIX subdivi ... - Wait! Why did you skip five? But seriously, I know most of us instinctively skip five in rhythmic exercises. It's a nifty challenge to tackle, as is seven etc. and deserves to be done more often.
Triple-triple-triple))) one and two and one))))) As easy to learn vibrato, as hard to use rhythms without konnakol naming. At 6:56 you're stammering because It is hard to count in non-percussion language)))
As you're vibrating fast, you switch to wrist vibrato. For me it is very very difficult to do that. I'd really appreciate a video on how to vibrate faster while doing an arm vibrato. I can already do arm vibrato, it's just not fast enough.. 🫠
I actually am still doing am vibrato. They really look the same, but it's the feel that makes all the difference. Good idea for a video on how to vibrate faster!
I started trying out vibrato a few days ago but it just wasn't coming together.. Turns out I was pulling the arm when I'm supposed to push it! Glad I watched your video, thanks!
I’m a music teacher myself, and I’m very impressed with your teaching! ❤
Thank you so much!
As a violin player I’ve watched a lot of videos and they haven’t helped very much and left me confused but your teaching was very helpful!
…
Very clear and helpful instructions, particularly the warnings about common errors! I've never heard "vibrato" pronounced this way.
I guess you've never been to Alabama! 😄 Glad it was helpful!
@@MeadowlarkViolin Guess again! I live in Mobile (but I don't get out much).
@@jamesmcinnis208 This made me laugh so much! 🤣 Honestly, I don't know why I say "viiibrato." I had some pretty hard teachers from all around the world and I know they would have corrected me if it really bothered them. Tomayto, tomato I guess! 🤷♀
@MeadowlarkViolin In many languages, "i" is pronounced as you do in "vibrato." I teach English as a second language, and one of the most difficult sounds for learners is the short "i" as in "fit" - they naturally say "feet." To your teachers, especially the ones who speak European languages, your pronunciation of "vibrato" probably sounds more natural than mine!
(Glad you got a chuckle!)
I've watched various videos teaching vibrato technique.. and yours is by far the easiest, and most natural and effective method. You also are very pleasant, and I'm excited now to learn this! Thank you!
Thank you so much!
Same all the other videos I watched left me more confused than I was before
This is great. My teachers been going over vibrato with me (and just getting to start feels like such an achievement) and I think your explanation really helped cement what she’s been teaching me. Thank you!!
You're welcome! Yes, it is a huge accomplishment just to get started!
I'm gonna start practicing it right now! Thank you so much for this easy to understand tutorial
You're welcome!
Thank you so much for this video. It really inspires me because I am an adult beginner (I am 46 and playing for some months already) and I love the fact that you divide every step makes it easier. I will try it tomorrow, thank you again !
You're very welcome! Glad it's helpful!
TYSM I LEARNED VIBRATO WITH ONLY 1 HOUR!!! MY TEACHER IS NOW SHOCKED HOW I DID IT TYSM🔥🔥🔥🔥❤❤
Awesome!
Thank you for this and all of your materials that you have posted. I've been a violin teacher for over 30 years and am always looking high quality teaching advice, and you certainly do that! There is so much here for me to try with my students and to add to my "teacher's toolkit." Much appreciated.
You're very welcome! I'm glad it's helpful!
Thank you for sharing your ideas on teaching vibrato. I look forward to trying them with my students. ❤️
Muito bom! Tenho dificuldades com vibrato e vou exercitar!!! Obrigada ⚘️
Thank you so much. I’m so glad i’ve found your channel. I’m beginning my Vibrato journey so this is so helpful x
So glad you found it helpful!
Brilliant, best I have seen on vibrato. Very grateful. Thank you so much.
You're very welcome!
So good to check back in on these basics. I'm a beginner-ish older man and I can successfully perform the metronome exercises. Sadly, when I play repertoire, I can't seem to incorporate the vibrato arm movement into the music.
It definitely takes time, practice, and patience to be able to incorporate vibrato into your actual playing. Keep it up and don't beat yourself up too much!
Foarte bună lecția, mulțumesc!
Subscribed 👍
You, explained it so clearly, Thank you!
You're welcome!
Thank you, I will tey this
Thank you and pratique vibrations.mr Mustapha and Casablanca Moroco.
Wow!! Thanks for beautiful explanation!!
She nailed the problems beginners have. Another one i used to have was having my thumb arching over the fingerboard. Hard to get a nice vibrato with that. I feel like if was probably because I hadn't used my shoulder rest as much as I should have.
Yes, I agree. The thumb arching over the fingerboard is something I see a lot as well. As you pointed out, it probably stems from being uncomfortable with the shoulder rest.
Omg this gave me the break through I needed
That's wonderful! I'm so glad!
Pure gold.
Finally, i can follow the CORRECT guidance. Amateur here, just trying to learn slowly :)
You're welcome!
I finally start vibrato now. I am learning for 11 months now. Honestly.. I am a bit scared. But it's ok I will master at some point. So I will keep watching your videos and following some of the advice as I have only weekly lessons..
Just take it slow and don't spend too much time at once. It's a gradual process. Have fun!
Thank you for your teaching! God bless!
Thank you for this video, very helpful!!!!
1) at what playing level before attempting to try vibrato?
2) does your thumb move?
3) does your wrist bends as you flatten the finger? Normal playing, I was always told to keep the wrist straight. So with vibrato the wrist would have to bend and straighten back and forth motion, right?
4) how on earth do you keep the violin from shaking, is your chin doing more controlling on the chin rest?
Brilliant lesson!
This is a brilliant approach. I have been teaching for a long time. My success rate teaching decent vibrato is much better now than decades ago, but still, I still occasionally strike out. This is pretty similar to parts of what I do, but this sort of cuts away chunks of the approach I've used. One of the things I've observed is that student- -especially young ones--have to build finger strength and flexibility. Anyway, I will try this with a couple current students that are not able to turn months of tedious work into vibrato. Maybe this will do the trick
Yes, I agree! Finger strength and flexibility are very important when it comes to learning vibrato. I think that's one reason why students who try to learn vibrato a little too early really struggle. It's just the muscle control isn't quite there yet. Sometimes I've had students strike out with this method too. When that happens, I use this trick of sliding the hand up and down the fingerboard then just letting the finger stick while the arm continues the motion. I've actually had several students who struggled with vibrato instantly get it using that trick!😄
Love❤ the way u teached❤❤
Thank you ♥️🙏
Thank you!
THIS WORKED ON ME 🎉🎉🎉🎉
So glad it worked!🥳
Thanks Lora! That was a great video. I'm not going to start working on this yet, but it was good to get a peek behind the green curtain!
You're welcome, Mark! Vibrato will be sooner than you think! :)
Great! 🎉
Excellent
Thank you so much!!!
I wish you had also shown this technique using the fourth finger. Your fourth finger looks short like mine and I am curious how that would work.
With the pinky, you can try doing the exercise with the third finger on the string right behind the pinky. This can help strengthen your pinky. My pinky knuckle isn't as flexible as the other fingers so the vibrato is definitely weaker. Maybe I need to do a pinky vibrato video!
I'm ready to try this, does it matter if when you flatten the finger it seems to hit the next adjacent string?
I think that's fine. When you speed up the motion, that shouldn't be a problem.
This is exactly how the mechanics of vibrato works. It you are having trouble combining the bowing with the left hand vibrato, then focus your mind on your bow hand and let the vibrato happen from the back of the mind. Your body will naturally hold the rythmic beat and you will be focusing on the bowing which gives you the wonderful tone. I had to take my mind directly off of the left hand to finally make it automatic and back onto my bow hand.
I totally agree. Focusing on the bow and letting the left hand "do its thing" during a tricky left hand passage is a technique I often use as well.
I’m left handed, I was never given an option to play any other way? Started in 6th grade and played in school for 4 years.
Hello. Thanks for the tesching it really helps me improve my vibrato. But what do i have to do with my thumb??
The thumb should be relaxed and not pressed or squeezed against the neck but it doesn't really move. It might wiggle a little bit while you are doing vibrato, but nothing excessive.
@@MeadowlarkViolin i kinda tend to move the thumb back and foward very strong. Is there any way i can prevent the thumb to move too much?
@@Jenninrm I would definitely practice vibrato without the bow, just so you can focus on the motion. I think also going through a lot of relaxation exercises for the left hand would help. I have a vibrato course where I teach these techniques if that helps! bit.ly/45iar7S
All good see you then
When I do vibrato, I shake the violin too much and it makes my bow bounce. I saw another video where the violin is rested against a wall or on a counter to stabilize it. I like your technique of teaching vibrato starting with quarter notes and working up... but I am a little impatient. When I play a tune I either sacrifice intonation or vibrato technique or bowing! I gotta put all three together!!!
I know it's easy to get impatient! I would suggest waiting to add vibrato until you feel absolutely confident that you've learned a piece. Once you feel confident with the intonation and bowing, then add vibrato to it, like icing on a cake. Or go back and play really easy songs with vibrato.
You can teach me, I want to learn, I play Indian classical, but I want to learn western music as well.
Hi! My online studio might be able to help you out. Here's a link to browse all it has to offer. I also offer a free trial so you can see if it would work for you: www.meadowlarkviolinstudio.com
Hope that helps!
I can’t seem to coordinate moving the bow and trying to do vibrato at the same time, have not come across anyone telling how to do them together ,frustrated……… thank you
If you're having trouble combining the left and right hands, separate them. Try doing just vibrato with only the left hand (no bow) just to get totally comfortable with the movement. But if you are struggling combining the two, you might also want to go back and make sure you can do basic bowing without even thinking about. Being able to move the bow and get a good tone should be totally natural so you don't have to think about it much while trying to do vibrato. Hope that helps!
Thanks for the video. Any safety issues? I had heard arm vibrato is more dangerous than wrist. Us adult students have to be careful 😅
Yes, always good to be careful! There's a lot of debate on arm vs. wrist vibrato. It's good to know both, but when it comes to learning vibrato, I usually prefer to teach arm since I think it's easier to be relaxed while learning arm vibrato. I think students tend to get very tense while learning wrist. However, I've heard teachers say the same thing but opposite! So it's very personal. Sometimes arm vibrato just makes sense for a student, and sometimes wrists vibrato makes sense for them. As for getting hurt, I don't think you run a great risk of hurting yourself doing either. As long as you are staying as relaxed as possible and taking breaks you should be fine.
@@MeadowlarkViolin Thank you so much for the explanation. It seemed pretty safe from the video. The wrist vibrato motion seems a bit more intuitive but my hand placement and fingering seems more naturally setup for arm vibrato. It's nice to consider both.
hi! I love you're violin! I have a violin! I have not watched you're videos! so sorry!! 😁
I get really annoyed with people who say it vyebrato instead of vihbrato. Otherwise it is a good video and I’ll use the content.
I loved it!! It helped me thank you!!!! Oh, and just so u know, I accidentally put a thumbs down when I was trying to like ur video
My problem is my hands holding the stick determines the movement of my fingers. Hard to control them simultaneously. I need help
PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE
Try playing without the bow to make sure your left hand feels confident. More scales and exercises would probably help too :) I talk about a lot of exercises you can do in my vibrato course to help bit.ly/3u108Un
I love you
My biggest problem with learning vibrato is keeping the violin from dropping away. I find I am gripping the neck which leads to a tense and unflexable hand. Can anyone help please.? 😢
Hi Jan, I don't know if you've seen my video on adjusting your shoulder rest, but I'll include the link below. It sounds like your shoulder rest probably isn't doing much for you know with the way it's adjusted. If the shoulder rest is adjusted correctly, you should be able to hold the violin up with just a little weight from your head and no tension from your hands. th-cam.com/video/KliM8ifWRVA/w-d-xo.html
@MeadowlarkViolin thank you so much, that's great. 👍😊
... SIX subdivi ... - Wait! Why did you skip five? But seriously, I know most of us instinctively skip five in rhythmic exercises. It's a nifty challenge to tackle, as is seven etc. and deserves to be done more often.
🤣So true! Very good point. It's worth the challenge!
That makes the note sound flat. I prefer vibrato going up and down around the note, not just down and original place of note.
It does sound flat when doing the exercises slowly but as you get to faster and faster divisions, it will turn into the ideal vibrato.
Triple-triple-triple))) one and two and one)))))
As easy to learn vibrato, as hard to use rhythms without konnakol naming.
At 6:56 you're stammering because It is hard to count in non-percussion language)))
I think she just wants me to progress slower, so I don't catch up with her skills 😝. That's why I'm supposed to practice this for weeks and weeks
Yep! You figured it out! 🤣
Am i the only one who is seriously not picking up how she makes a different sound with making her finger curved and flat
A "vybrato"??... never heard of that. 🤔🤔
I am from Alabama 🤣
I like you a lot but it’s pronounced vib brato not vigh brato
Well, I'm from Alabama, which probably explains a lot! 🤣
As you're vibrating fast, you switch to wrist vibrato. For me it is very very difficult to do that. I'd really appreciate a video on how to vibrate faster while doing an arm vibrato. I can already do arm vibrato, it's just not fast enough.. 🫠
I actually am still doing am vibrato. They really look the same, but it's the feel that makes all the difference. Good idea for a video on how to vibrate faster!
@@MeadowlarkViolinyes that would be perfect, thanks in advance!