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My teacher noticed that I have some vibrato inconsistantly, particularly throughout slow movements and he wants me to listen for it and figure out how I am doing it. I did not even realize that I had any vibrato until he pointed it out. I can now hear it on a few notes, but haven't a clue as to how I might be making it. I know that I am not using my jaw to do it. Any ideas as to what I might be doing?
Amy

Amy,
I would start off by recording yourself while playing. This will give you an idea of exactly when your vibrato kicks in. If you are not using your jaw for the vibrato than you are probably using your air for vibrato. If you get an incentive spirometer you can adapt it to see your airflow. If you have not seen one it is a plastic tube with a ball in it with a long flexible hose. There is also an adjustable opening for increasing or decreasing the air resistance. You can than attach a small plastic tube to your mouthpiece and than to the spirometer. You can now invert the spirometer and buzz into it. The object is to keep the ball floating on air without hitting the top or having the ball float all over the place. Oh yeah, try buzzing pieces of music instead of notes, it makes it a little less boring.

Best of luck
Henry Gertcher

I agree with the above. Your teacher should be able to address this. If he/she has reasons not to.... I dunno. I usually address all things my studens ask about, unless they are very young and they ask about techniques way beyond their skill level.

Your vibrato is probably from air, which is generally not a preferred method. I think the air stream should be even and solid for the entire duration of the note. Using "jaw" or embouchure vibrato allows for a big full sound at all times.

A cheap version of a spirometer mentioned above is to check your air with a sheet of paper. Hold it in front of your face--aout 8-12 inches out, and either blow or buzz (with mouthpiece) into it. The paper should move away, and STAY there, not wavering. Any waver in your air should be visible in the paper. Though, a real spirometer is a great tool, especially for buzz training.

Id say do your best now to play with NO vibrato at all times. Then later, should you (or your teacher) decide to learn vibrato technique, go for the jaw method.

Dean wrote:Id say do your best now to play with NO vibrato at all times. Then later, should you (or your teacher) decide to learn vibrato technique, go for the jaw method.

Gene Pokorny reminded us at the Army Conference to keep playing our long tones. He said good long tones were the basis for all technique, and the example he gave was vibrato. Without good long tones, we don't have the basis for good vibrato, or any other form of dynamic and pitch control.

Rick "who believes that vibrato should only be added on purpose, but who can't produce except by using the jaw technique" Denney

mandrake wrote:So which is more correct? It seems that having vibrato is breaking one rule no matter what you do ... either you move your jaw ("strive for minimal jaw movement") or you change your air ("use the same amount of air for every note at every dynamic level"). Is it one of those things which you must find out for yourself?

I dont like the word "jaw" vibrato. I do prefer "embouchure" vibrato. But, generally speaking, the variation in pitch is caused by a slight raising and lowering of the jaw.

Embouchure (jaw) vibrato is more correct. Then you are varying the pitch of a good, solid tone (hopefully). Thats why I believe it is best to produce a solid, beautiful tone WIHTOUT vibrato, THEN you add vibrato training later--leaving your air the same.

The other advantage to embouchure (jaw) vibrato is--you are training yourself to vary the pitch of individual notes. This will immensely help your ability to lip notes into tune. (jaw vibrato is essentially lipping notes up and down in pitch in a timed manner)

Good luck!

mandrake wrote:So which is more correct? It seems that having vibrato is breaking one rule no matter what you do ... either you move your jaw ("strive for minimal jaw movement") or you change your air ("use the same amount of air for every note at every dynamic level"). Is it one of those things which you must find out for yourself?

Rules are there for a reason, and it's important to understand the reason before turning the rule into one of the Ten Commandments.

For example, the usual rule to minimize jaw movement is there to keep people from using jaw muscles as a crutch to get around lack of embouchure strength or air. It doesn't mean to keep the jaw rigid--it should remain as relaxed as possible, it seems to me, just like everything else. Applying jaw vibrato is something you add to an already established ability to play straight notes without having to rely on jaw movement.

And where did "use the same amount of air for every note and every dynamic" come from? This violates basic science. Air flow in the low register will be much higher than for the upper register at the same dynamic level, mostly because of the size of the orifice needed to produce the same dynamic level. Jacobs measured air-flow rates as high as 140 liters/minute in the low register, and also determined that the same absolute pitch required the same air flow no matter what brass instrument was being played, and he was the Main Man in the Air Solves All school.

I think the intent of the rule you mention is to make sure that there is a surplus of available air needed to fill up whatever note you are playing, so that the note is filled with volume of air rather than pressure of air. So, you always need a full load of the free stuff, no matter what the note or dynamic.

When people used adjectives to describe air flow (in lieu of objective measurements, which are meaningless to most people including me), those adjectives don't always get interpreted the same way as the advice moves around. "Warm" air and "cold" air fall into this category. For me, warm air means lots of volume of air with as little pressure as possible. I think any form of vibrato is easier when that is how we are producing sound.

As to which vibrato method is better, I would measure that by the results.

Rick "who uses jaw vibrato because he can't get any other method to work" Denney

Rick Denney wrote:
"Warm" air and "cold" air fall into this category. For me, warm air means lots of volume of air with as little pressure as possible.

Rick "who uses jaw vibrato because he can't get any other method to work" Denney

I went through the "warm" and "cold" air thing with a horn teacher....and what I came up with was, if you are running an endless mirror past your chops a few inches away, and your air stream will fog up the mirror, it is warm air. If your airstream doesn't fog the mirror, it is cold air. That seemed to work for me.

I've worked on an embouchure (lip, not jaw) vibrato on and off on horn, and on occasion have gotten a vibrato that sounds a lot like what I'd call a "good" trumpet vibrato. I would only use this when playing Fritz Kreisler violin tunes on horn, though, not on Beethoven.

What I find interesting about jaw vibrato, is that on horn, and apparently trumpet, making the jaw vibrato larger and larger evolves into trilling. Not everyone trills this way, but I've seen very high level players who do. Since I have never attempted a trill on tuba, I have no idea how it would be done.

MA

mandrake wrote:It seems that a few people have decided that "embouchure vibrato" is better than "air vibrato", but if one has already fairly-well developed, just by chance, "air vibrato", is it really bad enough to require retraining?

Yes.