Dear Ian and Vocalisters:
There are some things we do know about vibrato. Ian is correct in suggesting that vibrato is a natural quality of a well sung tone. It represents the balance between the antagonistic muscle systems that should be in balanced opposition during singing. A tone without vibrato is a symptom of a vocal production that is under duress, that is, a vocal tone that is representative of an unnecessary tension within the vocal mechanism such that the normal and healthy antagonism between the musculatures of the vocal mechanism is suspended or held in check. In my experience almost every situation in which a singer produces a tone without vibrato is also a situation in which the singer is producing an excessive control over the voice. Type A personalities are the most common types to produce a tone sans vibrato.
So . . . the correction is to help the singer develop a vocal production that "allows" the voice to function rather than controls the voice or "produces" the voice. I know this is absurdly repetitive, but I have found no more effective teaching device than to teach the singer how to produce a correctly balanced "onset" of tone. Miller has the key on this one. -- Lloyd W. Hanson Flagstaff, Arizona
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