Professor V, on YouTube, has a video showing the hand/wrist technique. He does a great job at explaining this technique and the method to learning this type of vibrato. There are several disadvantages of this technique. First of all, this technique doesn't allow different speeds of vibrato. Your hand and wrist get into a fast vibrato grove and it's very difficult to make the vibrato wider. It is hard to control and make a slower movement to slow the vibrato down. (You want to have a variety of speeds with your vibrato, to adjust easily during different songs.) Faster notes require a fast vibrato while slow notes require a slower and wider vibrato. This type of vibrato doesn't allow that. Also, in this video, Professor V talks about the fact that once your in the correct hand position, you'll have trouble avoiding the first peg when using your first finger. This is very true and if a technique is preventing you from playing correctly, there must be another way that is better. Don't worry about placing the violin against the wall like he says because you should be holding the violin with your shoulder and chin.
I myself learned this type of technique, hand/wrist vibrato, and when I became more advanced, I realized that the other technique of arm vibrato was much better and really is the correct way to learn vibrato. It was hard to change techniques, but I'm so glad I had a really good teacher to help with the change.
Next, watch the video to the left and learn how to do arm vibrato. He does a good job of explaining this, but there are a few things I think need to be focused on. When your working on the motion of the finger rolling from the tip of the finger to the meatier part of the finger, focus on the first knuckle of your finger. That should be moving from being bent to being more straight. So when practicing this motion think "bent, flat, bent, flat", looking at that first knuckle. Again, don't put your violin again the wall, there is no need for that. Be sure to start out with slow movement. Once your consistent with the slow movement, add the rhythm in figure 1 to increase speed. (Professor V says to do doubles and triplets, but only an advanced musician would know if they are playing the rhythm even or not.) If you don't follow the rhythm I've given you, you might not have a vibrato that is even. Once you have the movement and the rhythm in figure 1 down, then play the rhythm with a metronome at a slow speed. Increase the metronome speed to continue to get a more even and controlled vibrato.
FIGURE 1
The notes with the orange squares are when the pitch is lower (your finger is flattened and rocked back).
Once you feel comfortable with the above exercise, move on to this next exercise.
FIGURE 2
I hope this information was very helpful and points you in the right direction for have the best vibrato and therefore the most beautiful violin playing.
There is no one correct way to do vibrato. Which type you use and find most effective varies from person to person and depends largely on how you're built. Also, what you say about wrist vibrato is completely false. Maybe that was your experience, but if you execute wrist vibrato correctly, you absolutely should have full control over the speeds and width of your vibrato. There are so many different shades and colors to choose from with wrist vibrato. Stop spreading falsehoods, and do your research, please. ) :
ReplyDelete