What are some good exercise for hand vibrato?

Question

I'm having a bit of trouble for hand vibrato, on the violin. Does anybody know any good and effective exercise to perfect it?

Answer 1

I'm not a violinist, but a cellist.

I found a couple things helped me with vibrato.

1. Soak you left hand in warm water. This helped me to loosen up my joints and wrist.

2. This one is especially useful for violinists (as my friends in my quartet tell me). They used a small ball, and placed it between their strings. They rolled their wrist with the ball back and forth.

3. I have a bad habit (and my friends still ask my about it) of pratciting vibrato when I get bored. I used a thin rolling pin and used it as if it was the neck of my insturment. This gave me plenty of practice with my vibrato. You can get hours of pratice and muscle memory without even knowing it.

4. Concertrate on relaxing your grip on the neck. Often times, a major problem is that people are simply grabbing the neck, which dramatically decreases virbrato ability.

5. As other people have said, use a metronome. Start on you E string, as it takes the least amount of effort to work with. Start slow, then work your speed up until you are satisfied. Then, move on to you A string, and repeat. Eventually, when you get done with the G string, you will notice that the E string is extremely easy.

6. A method that I have heard of, but never used, is sliding back and forth on the neck. Start with bigger slides, and eventually work it smaller and smaller until you are not sliding, but vibrating.

Best of luck! Vibrato is a hard thing to learn, and harder to perfect, but once you learn it, it is an absolute gift.

Answer 2

Vibrato on violin is all in the wrists. Practice moving your wrist fluidly back and forth. Try using an egg shaker or something to be able to hear the rhythm. Start slow, and work your way up to the speed for vibrato. Also, be sure to use the tips of your finger with vibrato, it will give you better intonation.

Answer 3

Practice with a metronome!
Slow your vibrato down and vibrate back and forth with each beat, then progress to eighth notes, eighth note triplets, sixteenth notes, etc. This will make your vibrato more consistant and controlled. You will not always use the same vibrato speed, so you need to have control over your hand. Many students always use the same speed of vibrato, and that is entirely incorrect. Different pieces/periods/genres call for different types of vibrato, so practicing this way will also prepare you for playing a variety of symphonies, sonatas, concertos and even pop pieces.

Answer 4

My teacher made me practice vibrato on my finger whenever I was waiting for something. You can slow the vibrato down and make all the movements huge. Practice maintaining the vibrato while changing fingers and also string transitions. Tighten the action later on until you feel comfortable with big and slow.

Answer 5

Get some corn starch and mix it with some warm water. Soak your hands in that water for about 6 hours a day and the hand vibrato should soon follow.

Answer 6

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Answer 7

Take a box of tic-tacs or something that rattles and fits in your hand, and just rock your wrist back and forth (not twisting it, keeping it parallel to your arm). Hold it loosely and keep your hand relaxed. It's helpful because it makes a sound, and you can work on making an even rhythm, while training your wrist to feel comfortable and your fingers relaxed.

Answer 8

It is disappointing that some people generate crude answers to such an interesting question.

There are a number of discussions on the WEB to help with your technique; just follow the links, good luck.

Answer 9

When I was learning vib for the guitar the best practice was a ruler - I could replicate the actions wherever I was.

Answer 10

Hold the bow gently between your thumb and forefinger, increase pressure as you become more proficient.