The first step I took to learn vibrato includes 5 pre-vibrato drills. These pre-vibrato drills help with getting familiar with what is involved in producing vibrato. It’s especially good for novices and beginners that are not quite ready to start vibrato yet – but one day hope to do so. Some of these exercises I still do to this day – even though I’m in the advance stages of unlocking my vibrato. All I have to work on now is speed (I’m curently vibrating at 114 BPM comfortably) and application. The best part of these exercises is that you don’t need anything to do them with – not even a violin.
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For all these exercises remember these redundant yet very important points:
- You should never experience any pain
- Do them with a time limit to avoid over working your muscles, tendons and joints.
I recommend 10 – 12 minutes. No More Than That! - Do not over work your muscles joints and tendons – you will risk injury if you do.
Believe me when I tell you, limit yourself when it comes to vibrato drills. I know by experience that
getting injured is not worth it. It will set you back in your violin journey and the goal here is to take
steps forward in a consistent manner
1 Fingertip Rolls
The goal for this exercise is to get your finger’s top knuckle used to being loose and flexible. You can do this by bending and straightening your knuckle on any surface. It can be on your thumb, your arm, on a book, even on your steering wheel when you’re stuck in traffic. The key here is to make sure your fingertip rolls are smooth and without any tension. This means do not press hard on the surface, don’t overextend when you straighten and don’t pop your knuckle up when you bend. Take a look at the demonstration in the video below.
2 Finger Tip Flicks
This exercise is more of a “checkup” for your top finger joints. The goal here is to release any tension and basically check if your fingers are gummy enough for vibrato. You do this by bending your finger at the middle joint – creating a 90 degree angle. With your right finger tips flick your left finger tip up and down. Your left fingertips should effortlessly flop up and down at the base of your top finger joint. That means that your upper knuckle is loose enough. Start with the first finger, bend and flick down ward 3X and upward 3X. Don’t forget to apply this exercise to your right hand as well.
3 Wrist Taps
This next exercise is a little specific to wrist vibrato, but it’s good for arm vibrato as well. Put your forearms together, you will cup your hands to touch your fingertips together. Then you will rock your hands back and forth from your wrists to tap your fingers at a steady pace. Start with quarter beats, then eighth beats, then 16th beats. You may use a metronome if you need to.
4 Air Violin
The goal with this exercise is to get your brain used to doing different motions with both hands at the same time. Which is what you do when you play vibrato. You will start by positioning your left and right hands in a violin-hold pose, wiggle your fingers. Now begin by extending both arms (from the elbows) outward and inward at the same time.
Then extend both arms outward and inward one after the other (your right hand will be doing a bow-like motion and your left hand is going up and down the fingerboard).
Now here’s where it gets complex for those who have never done this before. With your left arm, you will go back and forth as if you’re doing vibrato and at the same time your right arm will go back and forth at a very slow pace as if you’re doing a legato bowing motion.
Last, you will do the same motion but with opposite hands. Your right hand will go at a faster but steady (tremolo like) motion while your left hand goes back and forth in a slower motion (up and down the pretend fingerboard).
Don’t forget to do this whole routine with a left hand violin position. You can do each motion of this exercise in sets of three or four. For a clear reference on how to do this drill, refer to the accompanying video that is posted below this article.
5 Egg Shaker Drills
OK, for this exercise it helps to have a cute egg shaker – but you really don’t need one. You can use a small container that fits in the palm of your hand that is filled with dry beans or rice or anything that rattles. I’ve seen some do this exercise with a Tic Tac container.
Hold your shaker in the palm of your right hand. For the wrist vibrato motion, all you do is go back and forth, in a steady motion, from your wrist up. For arm vibrato, the motion will start from the elbow – back and forth to a proper violin position. For both versions, you need to go at a steady pace, a metronome may help you with this. Start at a slow pace, I recommend 68 BPM. At 68 BPM, you will start the “back and forth” motion in quarter beats. Then do the motion at double the speed (eighth beats), then end your drill at sixteenth beats. As you get better at it, increase the metronome speed in increments of 4 beats (for example, from 68 BPM to 72 BPM).
Well there you have it, these are the preliminary vibrato exercises I did to prepare myself for vibrato. If
you’re a novice /beginner, It’s a good idea to start training yourself with these drills. You can do this by
including these drills to your warm up routine – which is what I do. I hope these tips will help you in
your violin journey. Check back soon for the second step in developing vibrato!
