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From:  "Rocio Guitard" <rocioguitard@h...>
Date:  Sun Sep 24, 2000  7:08 pm
Subject:  Re: vibrato (questions for Cathy)

Hi there!
 
I've been away for a while but it's good to be back. Here's my view on the vibrato question:
 
Cathy Ardrey wrote:
 " When she hums (without thinking about it) she has a lovely, healthy vibrato. But when I ask her to hum in a vocalise, the vibrato is not there.  We've spent some time in the last two lessons trying to isolate the humming and what is happening that is causing the vibrato, but we haven't had much success.  I do think sometimes that concentrating on trying to add vibrato to her tone makes it much more elusive. If it's any help, this student is in her late twenties and has a light lyric/coloratura type voice."

I have a couple of questions before trying to figure out what's going on:
 
1. When doing staccato scales on the hum, is it a hum with an "h" before every note (i.e. "hm, hm") or without the h (i.e. "mm, mm"), and especially, does her hum have some sort of spoken tone to it? Her cords may be closing better than when she vocalises on another syllable/vowel and that would explain the vibrato. I also agree with another Vocalister's opinion that she might not be "trying so hard" when she hums. The Almighty Psi-Factor!!
 
2. Since she's a high soprano, does she use her chest voice at all? A lack of chest voice in the mix could result in poor cord closure as well, which she could be trying to compensate for by trying out "more breath support" which in that case would be another burden on her vibrato. Also monitor whether she increases breath support specifically for the sustained note, another possible reason for the problem.
 
I'll suggest some exercises once I get the feedback from Cathy.
 
And personally I don't think this has anything to do with the position of the soft palate. The vibrato is a natural release of pressure resulting from good cord adduction, therefore tied to the vibrator itself and not the resonators.
 
Best Regards,
Rocio Guitard
Seth Riggs Associate
emusic.com