I absolutely have to reply!!!! I've had the same problem and it was finally CURED by participating in masterclasses with Richard Miller in the summer. The sort of excercises he made me do were, for example, saying "I am a ghost" and doing a wobbly, ghoul sound on the word "Ghost". He would also ask me to talk like an American Preacher with vibrato in the voice. This helped me to really FEEL what the vibrato was like.
Then I moved onto singing with a laugh on long notes AND doing La-a-a- a-a-a-a each "a" being a sort of pulse. At first you are "pushing" the vibrato but with time the muscle groups take over and the vibrato begins to appear.
Another trick which is supposed to help vibrato is trilling. I have to admit that it never worked for me before although now that I am learning to trill properly, I am losing a lot of the tension I had previously as it is virtually impossible to produce a trill when one is tense.
I actually have a recording of the lesson I did with Richard Miller. I'm not sure how big it is if I MP3 it but I could try and e-mail it to you for a listen or put it on my website just for a week for you to download and see what sort of suggestions he was making? I would also highly recommend reading the section on Vibrato in Miller's books "training soprano voices" and "Vocal Technique" (something like that ...).
-- In vocalist-temporary@yahoogroups.com, Naomi Gurt Lind <naomi@n...> wrote: > L wrote: > > >I have been singing for only a few years and am a 30 y.o. with lyric > >soprano qualities to my voice but only occasionally do I sing with > >any vibrato. I am looking for suggestions on areas to begin looking > >for tensions that may be inhibiting vibrato. I do have a sense that > >somehow I am "controlling" the voice thus not allowing vibrato to be > >produced. The times I have sung with vibrato I haven't trusted that > >it wasn't "put" there somehow, in other words not natural. > > You're probably right that tension is interfering with the appearance > of vibrato. It's my experience that tension acts as an anesthesia to > itself -- but once I become aware of it, it's much easier to unlock. > You might consider taking some Alexander Technique or Feldenkrais > lessons. Both of these techniques deal in body awareness. I have > experience with Alexander (fellow list member John Link has extensive > experience with Feldenkrais) and can say unequivocally that this work > is what put my voice technique over the top in terms of dealing with > lingering problems. > > Good luck! > Naomi Gurt Lind
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