Singing vibrato is an art and science on its own. It can be taught and learned using a plethora of vocal methodologies. The ability to sing with smooth vibrato takes practice using particular vocal techniques. If you are a beginner, you need to learn and understand how to correctly control your vocals on aspects like breathing, articulation and resonation.
What is vibrato singing? Vibrato is a repeated fluctuation of pitch. If we would look at it technicality, it is an even, steady tonal oscillation of the pitch’s center. It can amazingly add a touch of class, warmth, depth and quality to your singing voice whenever you use it. If you are a singer who can effortlessly pull off good vibrato in your singing, it is a clear sign that you are using great vocal singing technique. It’s a very strong skill that is combined with proper breathing, sound placement, body alignment and a release of tension.
The main benefits of developing a good vibrato is being able to have the ability to bridge your vocal scales from the lowest to the highest areas with a balanced sound. Good vibrato is a mark of a great singer. Indeed it sounds good but it also protects our vocal chords from over usage and exertion.
How can you develop an exceptional vibrato in your singing? Let us understand first how vibrato happens. It happens whenever your singing voice shifts promptly between two pitches. The secret to good vibrato is your speed in switching between those two pitches. How fast can you do it? You can have natural sounding vibrato if you can change six times back and forth between two pitches in a second. To have a better idea about it, let’s try placing your hand in section of your gut somewhere between the centers of your chest a few centimeters above your belly button. After that, sing with a note choice of yours and press your belly specified earlier back and forth. Listen to how your voice vibrates, that is the effect you would produce with vibrato. While this is just a demonstration, it would help in understanding your goal. The real vibrato would not need the aid of your hands pressing on your abdomen in producing it.
Vibrato is a variation on pitch and is naturally produced if you have successfully created a good tone. Some vocal educators would teach you on how to force it out with the use of different exercises but that should not be the case. Vibrato cannot be naturally manipulated. We want you to be aware of them so you know which to avoid. Fake vibratos are also identified as trillo, wobble and tremolo. Trillo sounds like a bleating goat – it is very fast and is caused by a dispersed breathing. Wobble is when you have a change in pitch slower and is caused by little tone focus and poor breath support. Tremolo is a very fast version of wobble and is caused by too much pressure and tension on the base of our tongue. No need to worry because here, we prepared vocal tips that will teach you on how to produce vibrato the natural and the right way. We don’t want you to imitate vibrato, rather, we want you to know how to produce it the right way so your vibrato will naturally come out.
Developing your vibrato properly needs different singing aspects touched-on that are presented in great detail in our members area… besides that, you must have a good tone, proper breath support and coordination of your supporting muscles. Now that you have an idea on what vibrato is, its benefits and its fake counterparts, let’s dig deeper on how to produce a kickass sound of your own.
You should start using some vocal warm-up exercises before singing. The next step is to try to open up the back of your larynx when singing – A good example is to mimic a yawn (loosely), keeping that position in your mouth and throat while singing. It is crucial to make sure that your muscles are completely relaxed. This is why vocal warm ups are handy.
Then, you will need to learn the right breathing. For you to ace breath flow, you must have good posture. If you are standing when singing, stand with one foot slightly forwarded from the other and align your neck, head and back in a straight line. If you are sitting when singing, sit on the edge of the chair with your head facing forward and your back straight. Also avoid leaning on the chair or looking down to your music sheet when singing.
Continue singing while breathing steadily evenly and relaxed… Let it come naturally as you sing. Be sure not to tense your throat or stomach too much or you will crush the sound. Sing while using your diaphragm and softly pulsate the note with an even breath. It’s important to remember that consistent vibrato can be easily achieved with steady and even breathing.
Once you have mastered natural vibrato, be subtle in using it. It can be too distracting if you use it all the time. Vibrato sounds best when it is not overused.
You will normally start seeing some gains once you learn good breathing support from the diaphragm and singing with relaxed muscles. It can be challenging at first but like anything it takes practice. If you want to take the fast track to becoming a great singer consider joining our members area.