Singing: How do I develop a vibrato (voice)?

Less controversial answer: speech pathologists and voice scientists say it takes two years to develop vibrato, if you're studying an acceptable (read: not incredibly tension-heavy) technique. According to this, so long as you're singing loosely, you don't really have to worry to much about whether you're doing the right things. It's gonna come with time. More controversial answer: there was a study in the December 2010 issue of the Journal of Singing that explored the effects of placement on vibrato. In the study, it became clear that when singers conceived of a sound in the front of the mouth, the vibrato became less evident (for better and for worse, I'd imagine, depending on the singer), and when singers conceived of the same sound in the back of the throat, the vibrato became more evident. Now, these were full-time conservatory students, so results might vary depending on your level of experience. But if you're really curious, try messing around with the furthest back sounds you can. They might sound gross at first, but they also might loosen some stuff up. Then when you move the sound back forward again, it will be influenced by that looseness. No matter what you go with, good luck, and let us know how it goes!

First off, there are actually two distinct types of vibrato - Pitch Vibrato and Amplitude Vibrato, but doing either does naturally invoke doing the other. And regardless what anyone thinks or says, vibrato is not an esoteric thing that is mysteriously hard to understand or develop.  On the contrary, it's simple.  Very simple.  Pitch Vibrato is a variation in pitch up and down.  An over exaggerated version of this is Tarzan's call where he goes up and down in pitch with his voice. Amplitude Vibrato is a variation in amplitude, otherwise known as volume. Simply put, you increase and decrease the volume of a note rapidly using breath control.  An easy example of this is laughter. Of the two, Pitch Vibrato is the most common in singing.  But once you develop it, you will notice that you are actually doing a little amplitude vibrato as well. Here are two simple practical drills with an image taken directly out of my book that show you how to develop vibrato.  Where I reference "your Natural Note", I am speaking about a previous section in the book.  But you can determine that from an article I wrote on it, but it is not completely necessary for the following drills.  But, I will provide the link after the drill all the same.  Singing Drill 35 – Vibrato and Volume – Pitch Vibrato Using the wave image, reading left to right, sing and slide slightly up and down in pitch along with the direction of the wave line.  Use your Natural Note as your starting pitch.  Read left to right, varying pitch slowly at first, speeding up slightly with each run through.  Repeat until you are singing a quick steady vibrato and are varying in pitch to fast to follow on the wave image. Singing Drill 36 – Vibrato and Volume – Pitch Vibrato Without looking at the image, Visualize the wave image while singing and slide slightly up and down in pitch along with the visualization of the wave line.  Use your Natural Note as your starting pitch.  Vary pitch slowly at first, speeding up slightly with each run through.  Repeat until you are singing a quick steady vibrato and are varying quickly in pitch. I also have drills for Amplitude Vibrato, but that will get you started. As promised, here is the link on how to determine your Natural Note.  You can also find a link to the book from there. http://www.singingfromscratch.com/what-is-your-natural-singing-note/ Michael Graves

There are various opinions about vibrato, but in general it is easier to turn off vibrato than it is to turn it on.  I sang with a "composer's voice" (straight as a stick) for 30 years, then began to get the tiniest quaver, and now, having had a vocal operation and just plain getting older, I've learned how to relax into a pleasant, light vibrato. With me it involves lots of relaxation and keeping the jaw dropped but not tight.  When it's working I can feel my wattles (I'm 68 and a bit overweight) moving ever so little.  Imagine a huge rubbe band that's just going blomp, blomp, blomp when you stretch it a little and let go - now pull the band tight and - it will go twangwangwangwang really fast; and that's what happens to vibrato when the jaw and throat muscles go tight. The vocal cords don't do vibrato; its' the stuff all around. Havinig good solid abdominal support helps, so that the throat muscles don't have to do all the work and go tight. I am not a guru on vibrato; I only have a wife who is an opera singer and has had a big vibrato since she was six years old (she worries about developing a wobble, the way other women worry about developing lines or love-handles). You can make a "vibrato" of course, like the Robert Goulet imitation ("C'est si boh-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-n") - just grab your throat and wobble it!  But that's cheating, and doesn't sound all that great.

The most important thing is to develop and maintain proper breathing and singing mechanics. If done correctly, the natural relaxations (pauses) indicative of the vibrato sound will develop over time and become a part of your natural singing voice. Try to check this andhttp://www.singingvoiceperfection.com/ Try to maintain proper health habits...please don't smoke, drink, get plenty of exercise, and don't drink soda or other sugary drinks. Water and hot tea go a good way in developing your voice. Best of luck, and keep singing.

Vibrato disappears when there is not enough breath pressure created by the diaphragm... However most people then attempt to increase the breath pressure by contracting muscles in various places on their torsos which actually inhibits the movement of the diaphragm. I see that vibrato is robbed most by stiffness in the solar plexus (right on the edge of the diaphragm) although it is rarely exclusively so. Occasionally the issue is caused somewhere between the larynx and the teeth but if the diaphragm is flexible there is usually vibrato; tensions in the pharynx often just widen this vibrato (also undesirable). Occasionally the vibrato becomes too wide that your nervous system will attempt to compensate with contractions in the torso, again, causing inflexibility in the diaphragm. Now all of that information may be interesting, but if you ask any opera singer, they'll tell you it's useless, and as words on a page, it is useless. I'm working on developing exercises that directly work with the sensory and motor portions of the brain to work on these pedagogical issues but they won't be up for possibly another year (http://coreysings.com) and the site is still in development. I suggest you work with a Feldenkrais Practitioner (http://www.feldenkrais.com/) and ask them to help you with the following things: - Improving the function of your breathing in standing (a great practitioner could help you improve every week for the rest of your life on this issue) - Developing proprioceptive control of the diaphragm and differentiating it from the rest of the muscles in phonating (you may have to find a practitioner with singing experience or experience working with singers, speakers, or actors) The words are meaningful to a practitioner of this method. Then I would work with a normal singing teacher to go further or a Linklater Designated teacher. Ask the latter for help especially with pharyngeal tension. Just a comment on David Leigh's answer which is a good one as well, I believe the study was done on singers. What that means is that they will have an highly active "adjustment response" going on; their nervous systems have been trained to correct sounds with adjustments elsewhere in the body. As opera singers, we are searching for greater vibration and one of the fundamental ways we do this is to lift the soft palate to allow vibration to connect to bony structures above the palate. Something like 90% of the population, have a shorter soft palate which ends in the back of the mouth (not Pavarotti). Therefore, the feeling of placing the voice forward often disconnects from these upper resonators. If I had to explain what happened in that study from the little I read, those singers lose vibrato because they sense that the resonation is drying up and their nervous systems attempt to compensate with more contraction in the torso, thereby reducing the flexibility and strength of the diaphragm. Also, the other answers that have been given are pretty good too. The links provided by Taher in particular may help you. Good luck!

Charlotte Lang gave a good answer. I'll piggyback on that and say that my memory is that I developed vibrato when my voice teacher said, "You have to lose control to gain control." That nugget applies to life too.

There are many singers with absolutely fantastic technique that do not know how to have vibrato on a note. So this idea of "healthy singing" = vibrato makes no sense in the real world of singers unless you're only looking at it from a classical genre perspective. In that case you'll likely "catch" vibrato as a result of being immersed in the vocal effect. There are also many singers with technical problems who also have vibrato. They may have a vibrato that they can't control, for instance it's too wide, or too fast for their taste. Maybe they aren't even intending to have vibrato and want to have some control over it. I wouldn't tell those singers to tighten their throat in order to get rid of it,  so a good technique doesn't equal vibrato...perhaps a good classical technique. Vibrato is sliding your voice up and down within the range of a note, like singing an A 440hz, then sliding to an A 445hz, then back down to 440hz, in rapid succession so that the note sounds like it "wavers". It's the same thing you do for moving higher and lower in your voice, except the range is very very small. If you can slide your voice from one note to another while singing, and do this in a healthy way, you can learn vibrato, which is just a tiny version of this. If you're not already able to do vibrato, sliding back and forth in your voice in small increments going gradually faster and faster can often can help you get the vibrato  coordination to be easier over time. Eventually, you only have to think of adding vibrato in order to do it, just like you only have to think of moving your voice higher or lower to modulate your pitch a little. Melismas/runs are very similar to learning vibrato in that your mind has to have a very clear idea of the pitches your singing and it simply takes time (unless you can already do runs) to think of the pitches both quickly and accurately. Vibrato is the same except it's a higher and lower "version" of the same note. I talk more about singing at my blog at http://synergisticsinging.com Hope that helps!      -Chris

I learned vibrato on flute first. This made singing with vibrato far easier.The way I learned was to voice (on the same pitch) equally spaced, separated, 1/4 notes of “ha’s” for 8 counts, then 1/8 notes for 8 counts, 1/8 note triplets for 8 counts, and then 1/16 for counts, then let the “ha’s” become less articulate. This turns into vibrato (connected ah’s). Then with enough practice, they turn more natural.I did this for each note in the chromatic scale to learn vibrato for voice. It took a couple of months for the vibrato to feel natural. Of course this type of exercise also helps with supporting the air column and other technical fundamentals.

A vibrato often comes naturally when holding a note with strength. The frequency of the vibrato is often natural to whoever's singing. Try placing the sound at the front of your mouth and singing from your diaphragm and, with practice, you should find it.