I’m 12 years old and I asked my music teacher when we were gonna learn vibrato, she said until I get to 8th grade and the reason why I joined orchestra is because the vibrato sounded so cool so now I’m just watching tutorials on how to do it because I can’t wait 2 years just to learn vibrato 😭
I just started cello 8 months ago, learned to play the Swan without vibrato. Searching for a tutorial, and you really killed it. Amazing pedagogy. Patience required during the process and it will happened. It gives me hope. Thank you!
This is so helpful. I've been playing the cello for about six months now and I've just begun practicing vibrato and it is SO intimidating and I'm so terrible at it. I'm going to incorporate this into my practicing. Thank you for your help!
When doing vibrato on a cello do you start with the higher tone or the lower? I believe my violin teacher always told me to start with pulling back the finger (lower sound) and letting it bounce back (higher sound). When I watch the video it's exactly the opposite, right?
Barrie H The first action with the arm pivots vertically at the elbow but the the movement on the string is approx 45 degrees and in the direction of the D string. Have I missed something? Thank you
Thanks for the wonderful instructions! After following the procedure for many weeks now, once I go below the halftone slides and try to fix the finger on the fingerboard (I know I shouldn't, as vibrato is supposed to come all by itself ;) ), I still have the feeling vibrato at that final stage is only working for me if I rotate the finger somewhat around the fingertip, which, even if the full arm up to the elbow is involved seems to be a bit of a wrist vibrato involved too. Am I right, that this execution is wrong and it should indeed be an entirely translatory motion up/down? Also, vibrating on the 3rd and 4th finger, I have a hard time trying not to stretch my first finger far apart which looks so weird, any advice on that? And lastly, is the thumb really supposed to follow the vibrating finger on the backside as I've heard, which makes it hard to play continuous vibrato in a tone sequence? Thanks a lot!
Hi Peter! You are at the very point I reference at 10:50 in the video - when you are almost there, but not quite. It's the single most frustrating point in the process, because you can see the finish line in sight and want it to happen so badly that you try to force it by rotating. Rewatch that part of the video where I talk in detail about that very issue, the 'it's never gonna happen' phase :-) It's a totally normal stage to go through, but the important part is to stick with the process and it'll come.
No one ever mentions that each finger has its own vibrato because of where it is located in the hand. First finger vibrato is different from second, and so on. The oscillation is mainly the first joint of the finger, but that’s trickier with first than with second or third. And ummmm… it’s not difficult, you just need to relax, and if you relax the vibrato will usually begin by itself. Beautiful cello, btw…
