There are three types of violin vibrato. The arm, wrist and finger vibrato. When you are starting to learn how to play violin vibrato you may want to start with arm vibrato because it is the least delicate. With you violin on your shoulder, hold down a string with one finger. Move your arm, not your finger, towards the body of the violin. Then move it back to the original position. Now practice moving your bow over the sting and move your arm back and forth. You will notice a change in the sound of the cord from low to high. This is an arm vibrato. Your arm should only move about one inch in either direction.
When you have gotten good with the arm vibrato, you can advance to the wrist vibrato. Just as with the arm vibrato, hold down a string with one finger. Rather than moving your arm one inch in either direction, just move your wrist back and forth. Practice slowly until you get the hang of it and then you can speed it up. This will produce a faster vibrato than the arm version.
The third and most delicate type of vibrato is the finger version. Hold down a string with one finger. Hold your arm and wrist still. Just move your finger up and down about one inch. Start slowly. You don’t have to learn this in a day. Practice just a few minutes each day until you feel more comfortable with it.
Learning violin vibrato may take a lot of practice and quite a bit of time, but it will be worth the time you spend learning it. It is one of the best sounds in many performances. Be sure when you start to learn vibrato that you learn it properly. If you learn it the wrong way first, it will be difficult to correct later.
Click Here For More On Violin Vibrato!
Photo Credit: lejoe
Mail this post
Tags: Beginning Violin, How to Vibrato Violin, Practice Violin, Teach Yourself Violin, Violin Class, Violin Instruction, Violin Technique, Violin Vibrato