The Brass Band Forum

Many brass musicians have problems with when, how and how much to use Vibrato.

My question is how do you know when you are using too much or too little Vib?
How do you get it right?

It depends on the piece - a good conductor will change the amount of vibrato depending on the context. A good composer will from time to time mark "senza vibrato" or "con vibrato" as needed. A good soloist will know what to use and when.

-Nigel

Still learning! I do use vibrato frequently but I am always paranoid over the speed in which I do it.

There's a time and a place for everything. As long as your vibrato is appropriate to the music, fill your boots!

You should not be thinking about vibrato at all, it should come naturally without thought at the right time.

However, soloists can suffer from excessive vibrato and non soloists and more often backrow cornets in lower section bands simply have none! which is a shame as a basic ammount of vibrato helps to warm the tone or keep it from falling out of tune.

If we played with no vibrato at all we may as well all sit down with a bontempi on our knees. So, I dont subscribe to the 'NO Vibrato' way of teaching kids...... If a kid is attempting to warm his or her sound by the use of vibrato they will require guidence as they learn to control it.

Thanks john, wise words- I'll take it on board.

Well, I know opinions on this subject are very split... Most of the time however I feel the deffinition of what is and is not vibrato can be blurred.
We all know that the sound we make is a result of lip vibration or a frequency if you like so one could argue that by simply producing a straight note in the first place we have to introduce a form of vibrato with the lips. Depending on the player this can be very tight and lacking in warmth as the lips are held rigid or a % of controlled flexability can be developed which is pure and simply 'always on vibrato'...
I think the form of vibrato that most people actually have trouble with is Vibrato developed from the back of the toungue or throat.....or as Arban described it the horrible Ow~Ow~ow sound., itself a useful way of augmenting certain notes but only very rarely. Odly it is this very same common vibratto technique which seperates the way singers warm their sound the majority of the time.
Thirdly you have the form of vibrato where you wobble the instrument about.... I assume this is more suited to trumpets where high notes would simply die if any form of lip vibrato were excercised. I have tried this type of vibrato and I honestly can't control it.

So from my point of view, Natural lip vibrato = good. Throat vibrato is to be avoided most of the time.

Very tricky though as how we control our vibrato definnes what kind of sound we get, We all know of players with a 'vintage' high and sweet sound and others with a cosy mellow warmth.....its all down to how we develop our vibrato...
All the top players have well controled vibrato of one sort or another.
A Lot has to do with production and control, your lips are at the front line.

Practice singing through tight lips. If you feel yourself attempting to warm the sound you are making with the back of your toung then you are introducing vibrato, I defy ANYONE to try this and not discover they are using vibrato.
NOw, Try the same thing but atempt to warm the coulour of the tune with your lips alone,......now were cooking on gas

Of course another problem when developing vibrato is that teachers often feel that the student should be as technically precise before they waste their time making a nice sound. This I can only accept if the vibrato is getting in the way of how that player blends into the band.

Without doubt one sweet note is worth 2 perfect scales in my book.

Yes, I have heard several ow~ow~ow noises from people who I wouldn't expect. Also I have heard an extremely bad trumpetist who's vibrato is so bad its difficult to hear a note from start to finish.
I have observed that a nice way of using vibrato is to tail off the note, which produces a warming tone and is a pleasure to listen to. There is the other way- much like an opera singer- where you start with none/ little but put vibrato in, which also produces a warming tone.

The solo horn at mount charles can use both which does sound great as she uses it at different times and produces a great sound.

The question is the speed of the vibrato, many have got this wrong- often
Soprano players.
I shall never forget listening to a regionals CD and hearing a Soprano who seemed to be using, what I call 'Sheep Vibrato'.

As some of you may know I played Sop for a year or two and it happened to me (especially during Demelza), yet now I have toned down my vibrato considerably and am concentrating on both my technical ability and tone- which gradually proves to be beneficial (Although I keep spending too much time on listening to my vibrato!)

I remeber one christmas, my main present was a small but heavy box... I would have been eleven I guess.
Wow, it was a Denis Wick No.2 horn mouthpiece in gold no less ......It seems not only had the band master been talking to my parents about a more suiting mouthpiece but later that afternoon I discovered a sovereign tenor horn in the dustbin when I was asked to take out some rubbish..
It appeard that as I was now in a big band I now had to develop a big sound to fill this machine they thought me capable of playing. (it was the bands horn, no way could we have afforded one of them new ! )

So, I actually spent time taping myself over and over again to find out what was working and what was not..... It's very surprising to find out what your sound actually is! .... not many people actually know, and yet its so easy to tape yourself to find out, we use a mirror to make sure we look ok after all!..... There is always those who would point fun implying you must hold yourself in high regard for taping yourself.... nothing could be further from the truth, its the only way to find out for yourself how sucessful your 'improvements' are.

From the age of 11 to 18 I did develop a warm sweet and controlled vibrato on a sovereign tenor horn which appeared to fit with the rest of the band.
But I never enjoyed the sovereign horn at all, it always seemed too open compared to the sweeter sounds you could extract from other makes, with significantly less effort as well.

I have spent many a time recording mysel (on my phone actually!!!) to hear what I sound like, and have tested several types of vibrato- its beginning to work!

can some one please explain to me, what us vibrato?!?!? i am from a d grade band (the nearest other band is 4 1/2 hrs away), and from what ive gatherd from the a grade musos at spit valve, its quite tricky. its shame full to admit it, but evert time some one mentions it, i always find myself lost.

Well I've never heard of a brass band musician who doesn't know what vibrato is. I hope I have done well in translating your post and that is what you're asking.
Vibrato (on any voice or instrument) is used to mellow the tone of a soloist or to blend in as an ensemble. It is difficult to explain without hearing it. Basically the musician moves his/her (don't want to get political!!!!) lips (on a wind instrument, wouldn't be very effective on a violin!!!!) and produces a 'wavy' sound.

String musicians 'shake' their fingers on the string- they aren't all nervous or have some sort of condition!

I hope someone may be able to explain it better than me!!!

ohhh!! so thats what its called!!! i gedit!!! i knew what it was, just not what it was called.

wow. well, you learn somthing new every day.

i don't mind vibrato and some people can use it really effectively, but there just seem to be so many people that overuse it, or use it at the expense of tuning and of the ensemble (they make everything sound like it supposed to be their solo) or they employ it so much that they can hardly even hold a straight note. with the amount of people using it poorly, it would probably be better to just blow normally..