Sunday, May 14, 2006
Vibrato vibrato... Where are u?
Heres a reply i got from experts.com for a qn i asked about vibrato. here goes.
"
Subject: Vibrato
Question: i never really learnt how to play the flute properly. been going online to look for fingerings and playing techniques. so how do i go about learning a vibrato? and how do i increase my breath length?
Answer
Hey Chuanz, Vibrato uses the same muscles that you use when you whisper "ha ha ha." Vibrato should sound very free, but in order to make it sound relaxed and natural, you have to be able to control every aspect of your vibrato, including both speed and depth.
First, get comfortable whispering “ha ha ha” very evenly.
Then, if you have a metronome, I would set a very slow tempo at first, maybe around 80 or 90. Using triplet groups, do three ha pulses to a beat. Work for absolute control and evenness. In performance, you won't want machine-like vibrato that's all the same, but the more you can control it and make it sound exactly alike now when you practice it, the more you'll be able to vary it the way you want to in the future.
Speed up as you get comfortable - vibrato is generally around 116-120, using 3 pulses to a beat.
Once you have more control over the speed, you want to think about the depth of the vibrato, too. Vibrato is actually made by pitch bending, although it's fast enough that we don't perceive it as a bad kind of pitch bending. Try thinking of the note as a straight line and the vibrato as a wavy line juxtaposed on the straight line. You can have several different types of vibrato. You can have vibrato that spikes above the note - so the vibrato would be a wiggly line above the straight line. You can also have vibrato that dips below the note, or a line of vibrato that waves a little above and a little below the note's line.
Vibrato that pushes the pitch up, rather than down, is good for low register notes, when we have a tendency to go flat. Vibrato that dips below the main pitch of the note is good for high register stuff, to keep us from going sharp. This type of vibrato makes a very rich, warm sound, and is the kind that flutist Julius Baker often used.
So, thinking of vibrato as both speed and depth, you should be able to vary your sound a lot. Just be careful that you don't get TOO slow, or else it will sound like "waah waah waah"... you don't want that. :) The best way to learn is by imitation, so I highly recommend checking out some CDs of Julius Baker, Jeanne Baxtresser, Alberto Almarza, Jeffrey Khaner, or Jean-Pierre Rampal at your library. (If they don't have any, they should be able to borrow some from another library for you, usually free of charge.) I would avoid listening to James Galway's recordings for learning vibrato, because his is quite fast, and sounds almost nanny goat-ish at times. :)
Lastly, there's the question of when to use vibrato. Your goal is to have vibrato that you can bring in and out of notes, so it's not like you have an "on" and "off" switch. Vibrato on every note is too much, so choose when to use vibrato very carefully. Sometimes on long notes, you might try adding vibrato late, or starting with vibrato and taking it out... there's a whole world of possibilities to try, so try switching it up a lot, according to what sounds right for the kind of music you're playing.
Bottom line, just be sure that you can control whatever you do with your vibrato. If something happens involuntarily, the goal is to find a way to be able to control it, so you're making your vibrato the way you want it, not the way it happens to come out. Many flutists get a nervous tremolo kind of vibrato that happens involuntarily - this is what you want to avoid.
For increasing how long you can play without needing a breath, a lot of it is based on how much air you had to start – in other words, how you breathed in before you started playing. The flute takes more air than any other instrument, so if you don't start playing with a full tank of air, you'll always be short of air as you play.
Some breathing tips:
- Breathe naturally, with a relaxed throat that does not tighten or close up when you inhale
- Be sure your neck is not bent too much and that you have good posture so your wind pipe is open and free from unnatural strain
- Breathe in quickly so you get a lot of air in a short amount of time: place your index finger over your lips (like you're going to make a “shhh” gesture) and breathe in. Ideally, you want to breathe in so quickly and deeply that the air makes a rushing sound as it goes past your finger.
- Breathe in deeply so the air doesn't settle in your chest but goes further down– otherwise, when you take in as much air as you can, you'll have so much pressure up high on your chest that you won't get as much air in as you could otherwise
For playing especially long phrases when you have time to take in air beforehand, or for practicing playing as long as you can without breathing, it helps to take several shallower breaths as opposed to one huge, deep breath. Also, since we get more oxygen when we breathe through our noses, I like to breathe in through the mouth by taking a few shallower breaths through the nose, and then “topping off” with a final intake through the mouth.
How you use the air also affects how long you can play before having to breathe. Use a very clear tone, so there's no extra air escaping as you play, and if you have to play loud, try moving the airstream faster rather than using more air. Also, avoid unnecessary muscle movement, especially when you're running out of air. Moving body limbs take oxygen, so if you're trying to conserve air, stay as still as possible.
One final tip: when practicing long phrases, try playing them as softly as you can. Your first goal when improving your breath control is to make the phrase... once you can get to your goal, then you can work on playing louder, but at first, do whatever you have to to just get that far. :)
Good luck, and let me know if you have any more questions! ~Holly~ "
well. if u really read all that, its either u are, one very interested in flute(which is presume is not the case), or two u are seriously bored to insanity. haha. if u see me going ha ha ha around these days, dun get frighten ok? haha. =P flute rocks. well i would say flute metal, rocks abit hard to play. hmm.
my retrospect;
9:39 PM
